Child of Doom
by ProfessorScrooge
Summary: The balance of the world is upset as the child of Victor von Doom and Morgana le Fay finds her way to the modern world, only her father doesn't know she exists. Trained by the greatest sorceress of all time, and the master of magic and technology, Sofia von Doom is a force to be reckoned with. AU, OOC, F/F, OCxValeria Richards. Edited to fix up formatting issues.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Random idea I had, no idea how long I will run with it. Thinking OC x Valeria pairing. Oh, and importantly, only saying this once:**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of Marvel, blah, blah, etc., etc.**

 **Currently 11 chapters, might come back to this one at some point.**

 **EDIT 28/08/15: Fixed formatting issues from when I uploaded this.**

Child of Doom

Inky blackness pervaded the dense forest in the night, split only by a flickering campfire in a small clearing. A teenaged girl paced by the orange light, concentrating on a leather bound tome in her hands.

She cut a small figure; short but lithe, though most of her form was encased in cloth and metal. A verdant green tunic was her main apparel, swathes of cloth from just above her knees sweeping upwards to a single golden clasp on her left shoulder. Overlaying the fabric was an artful silver breastplate, swept up to the right shoulder, Celtic knots wrapping around the edges. Similar armour graced her slim forearms in vambraces, and greaves over her shins. A leather belt had a few pouches, and several knives strapped to it, containing what she kept on her person in the mortal plane. Her clothing was completed with a green cowl around her head, obscuring long, fiery red hair, ever so slightly pointed ears and purple eyes that occasionally glowed as she plied her craft. Fair to say, she wasn't the average fourteen year old girl to be found at this time, not that she had known until a few months before. Indeed, she had rarely seen anyone outside of her mother until that time.

Sighing, Sofia, for that was her name, closed the book, and murmured a spell to banish the tome as her thoughts once again turned to previous events.

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 _She had seen her mother angry before, but never in such a rage as today, raving about her traitorous apprentice. The woman had sent spells flying all over the stone walled keep in which she kept Sofia, one of many homes that she had across the time streams and countries._

 _When Sofia had attempted to approach the red-haired witch, hateful purple eyes that she had inherited stared back. She began to vent her rage on her daughter instead, firing off attacks that the girl could barely counter in time, all the whole shouting at her, calling her a mistake, the bastard spawn of a traitor._

 _Eventually, as it had to, her attempts at shielding let through a spell and her light form was thrown back through a balcony door. She did not finish a hastily muttered spell in time to save her a broken arm upon landing in wet grass. Looking up through the rain-filled night, she saw her mother leaning from the balcony, purple aura surrounding her._

" _I cast you out, you and your filthy blood shall never again have my love. Begone!" she yelled, hands waving in the air as she performed her magics. Terror suffused her body as the earth shuddered around, and the lumbering beasts of war her mother was so talented at summoning rose up, and fixed black eyes on her._

 _And she had run._

 _Oh so far, and for oh so long through the dark and stormy night she had run,, across the moors of Scotland, chased for hours by mindless beasts that desired only to rend her asunder like so much meat on a carcass._

 _She did not know when she got away from them, when they were no longer close, she just kept on going, limbs burning with effort, until the blessed sight of a village loomed up. As she slowed, exhaustion made itself known, threatening to drop her there and then. She stumbled on shaky legs into the small collection of wooden homes in search of a tavern or the like, before simply collapsing at a haystack, blackness encroaching on her vision._

#############################################################################################

The memory still haunted her, four months later. It had taken her a few days to truly come to the realisation that her mother was not coming to find her. It had taken longer for her to come up with any idea of what she was going to do.

Sofia sat down upon a fallen log, and stared into the flames of the fuel-less fire. This was Latveria, or so she was told when she passed through towns in Hungary. But there were few towns here, and no rulers to speak of. Not yet anyway. Time became an awkward thing when dealing with higher magics, those truly skilled could essentially live forever as long as they were alive at another point in their time stream, and it made bridging the ages an easy task. Sofia however, had not studied transference as much as her mother, either in this plane, or in time, hence having to travel to this country manually over the space of months instead of seconds.

She absent-mindedly fondled the surface of the scratched golden clasp by her shoulder. It remained the only thing Sofia had of her father's, given to her absent-mindedly by her mother many years past. The woman had always told her she would be introduced to the man when she was ready, when she was worthy of being an heir. This was her plan, her only option really. Her mother had cast her out, so she sought the father she had never known. Of course, that was slightly more difficult when he was at another point in time.

Giving a grimace she once more summoned the grimoire, gazing over the page with the spell for what felt like the thousandth time. Setting her jaw resolutely she displaced it again, and stood. There was no time like the present, and it was unbefitting of her bloodline to sit around worrying.

With deft fingers, she pulled off the golden clasp, placing it on the tree trunk upon which she had sat. With practiced ease she settled her stance, legs spread apart and hands outthrust, and began to chant in the language of the Fae. Words slipped easily from her tongue, and she could feel power suffuse her form, eyes glowing. Without even glancing down, she took a dagger blade from its sheath on her hip, and ran it across the palm of her other hand. From the weeping cut surged forth droplets of crimson that swiftly disappeared as the spell consumed her blood for its power.

As the last syllable dropped from her pink lips, the golden metal began to rise, floating into the air surrounded by a glowing aura of purple magic. With confidence, Sofia reached out a hand and grabbed it. Immediately, the world blurred around her, time shifting as centuries fell away. Sofia considered the flashing light around as night and day changed impossibly quickly, trees falling and growing at accelerated speed. Finally, with a sense of dizziness clouding Sofia's mind, the light stopped, and she was standing among tall trees in the night once more. Slight nervousness clasped her stomach as Sofia gazed upwards into a cloudless night sky, stars twinkling.

With a murmuring of words, shadows gathered to the girl's back. She smiled slightly as the spell she herself invented a year ago completed its work. Shadowy wings formed from her back, flapping experimentally and giving off wisps of smoke from their translucent shape as they moved through the air. With a grin, she launched herself off into the cool, crisp night air, twirling as she did. This was her achievement in spell craft, while her mother simply floated on magics, Sofia soared with the birds. It gave a sense of freedom like nothing else. She wheeled in the air, scanning the horizon. It was not difficult to spot the huge gathering of light on the near horizon, and she glided towards it.

Up from the Earth spread a great castle, huge Gothic spires and towers gathered around a hill. And below it spread something the likes of which Sofia had never seen, a city larger than London, all of stone brick and red roofs. Light spread from everywhere, windows and strange lamps on the strange black roads. From the air though, she could see the city was a thing of order, built up at the base of the castle and spreading outwards. Streets in calculated places, perfectly spreading over the area. She also had to note several defensive walls, both around the city and at points within. Her calculating mind saw strangle-points for any invading army. This city was put together with forethought and logical precision.

Gazing over at the looming castle, Sofia knew she had found the right place. She knew her father to be the Lord of this country, and it seemed only right someone like her mother would find only an intelligent, powerful man suitable of fathering her child.

Putting effort behind flapping, she winged her way towards the great stone building. She flew over the edge of the city, avoiding being in plain sight thanks to previous encounters of people trying to shoot her out of the sky. As she got near the castle, she wheeled away, feeling the magical defences.

With practiced grace, she landed by a sally port on the outer walls, banishing the shadowy wings as she landed. Stepping back, Sofia considered the large metal door, and numerous murder-holes around it. It was unlikely the door was heavily guarded; a skilled warlock would have instead protected the gate with magic. Sure enough, as she probed it, she felt the wards set up, many specifically against those of magical blood such as herself. Casting a few spells to determine their nature she couldn't help but smile as she discovered the blood wards at the heart of the castle defences.

Blood was a powerful thing for a sorcerer, used in some advanced spell work, and made something bound to it virtually unusable to any but the owner without extensive work on disconnection. Of course, that was only needed if you didn't have blood the magic would not recognise.

With calm confidence, Sofia placed her hand on the large ring at the centre of the door. Magic flared around her as spells powered up defences, and attempted to identify her, before fading. She withdrew her hand as the metal portal slowly drifted open.

Apprehensively, she walked through the doorway, trying and failing not to flinch as the door swung shut behind her. She carefully, but slowly with more confidence strode down a stone flag corridor, lit by torches on the wall. The steady clicking of her metal greaves on stone flags echoed in the corridor, adding to a slight eerie atmosphere.

Her striding stopped at an archway without a door, where Sofia could but gape at the contents of the room beyond. A library the size of a cathedral was within, endless bookshelves and cabinets of artefacts. She stepped into the room, past a pair of odd suits of armour she paid no attention to, gazing around at the treasure trove of stored knowledge. Knowledge had always been her weakness; she wished to learn more, to know more, to impress her mother and perhaps be worthy of meeting her mysterious father.

Sofia was torn from such thoughts by a hard hand around her shoulder, yanking her around on the spot. She looked up to see one of the suits of armour staring down at her with glowing orange eyes that chilled her slightly.

"Access to this level is restricted," it grated out in a strange bastardisation of a male voice, "identify yourself."

"I, err," she stumbled her words as the other suit of armour walked up beside her. ' _They must be knights in armour, guarding this wealth of knowledge_ ,' flashed across her mind. "Sir Knights, I do not come to harm."

"You will surrender your weapons and identify yourself or you will be terminated," the knight said in that grating voice, stepping back from her. Both knights held out their right arms from which some kind of tube hung on top, quickly beginning to glow with red light. Though she had no idea what it did, Sofia was instantly aware that the things were dangerous.

"Cease!" commanded an authoritative male voice from behind Sofia. She spun on her heel to see the speaker. He was clad in metal armour, overlaid with a green cloak and cowl. His helm had an odd mask on the faceplate, from which harsh eyes regarded her closely. "I will deal with the intruder myself. Who dares break into the home of Victor Von Doom?" Tentatively, Sofia reached up a hand to move back the hood from her face, allowing light to chase away the shadows that hid her features.

"I am Sofia Von Doom, Sorceress of the Scottish moors, herald of the Morrigan, scion of the Fae."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The man stood there stoically, blue eyes boring into her own as he stared Sofia down.

"Do you think it wise to mock Doom?" he at last replied.

"I speak only the truth," she said, trying to keep her tone confident.

"I have no family that remains. Dressing in green and claiming my name does not endear you to me." The absolute way he stated that made her stomach drop slightly.

"I've come at the wrong period of time haven't I?" she said, to herself more than him. "You probably haven't even _met_ Morgana yet…" He twisted his head to the side slightly as he regarded her.

"Your mother is Morgan le Fay?" he questioned.

"Yes. So, that means you've met her? This is the right time?"

"She and Doom parted way some time ago, but she never said anything about a child."

"Well I made it past your blood wards, so surely that proves something."

"Magic can be subverted," he stated. "Follow me, and we shall see if your claim has any truth." Without waiting for her answer, he turned and stalked away. Sofia quickly snapped out of her still stance, and hurried over to him, falling into step.

As they twisted through several corridors, she sneaked several looks up at the man. He was tall, with a powerful frame, but nothing else could be determined about him. She couldn't help but wonder what her father looked like under the metal. At last Doom brushed through a large pair of doors into an odd room. Sofia looked around in wonder at the strange things everywhere, white block-like furniture and queer instruments. Doom ignored her roving gaze, opening a drawer on one of the desks, withdrawing some kind of glass device.

"Show me your arm," he commanded, his voice brooking no argument. Tentatively, Sofia unbuckled a vambrace and rolled up her green sleeve. Grabbing her flesh in his iron grip, he poked the metal end to the device into her arm. She stoically held in the gasp of shock, not wishing to seem weak in front of him, instead looking strangely as Doom pressed something and the glass cylinder filled with crimson. What a useful thing, it would make extracting an exact measurement of blood for a spell easy. When the vial was full, Doom withdrew the metal point without a word, striding over to a table. Sofia whispered a quick healing spell, and re-clothed her arm. When she looked up, Doom was resting his hands on the table while staring at a thin device with what looked like a glowing window which had suspended characters and words.

"What was that device you used?" she inquired, walking up to his side. Slowly, his head turned to her and blue eyes seemingly stared into her soul.

"An electronic syringe," he stated after a while, turning his attention back to the screen. Both words meant nothing to her, and she mentally logged a need to discover their meaning at later date. In fact in more than a millennia of time through which she had jumped, there was probably a lot to know.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the screen changing to the two words 'Genetic Match.'

"I'm going to presume that's confirmation I am who I say I am," Sofia said. Doom did not reply, simply staring at the words displayed in front of him. "Father?" she said hesitantly after a long minute of the man remaining unmoving. He jerked back quickly at that to look down at her once more.

"The Doombot outside will take you to a dining room where I shall join you shortly," he said before turning around quickly, his green cloak whipping in the movement, and walking away through the door they had come in.

She moved to follow him through the oaken portal, but instead ran into another of the knights from earlier, or 'Doombot' they had now been dubbed. Orange eyes met her own, before the metal machine started walking away from her. Sofia took it as a cue to follow, and kept pace behind the silent behemoth up several flights of stairs and through many corridors. Eventually it led her into a room dominated by a long mahogany dining table furnished with ornate silverware and bedecked with prepared food which was still being laid by a few gaunt servants who hastily bowed to her and left. She sat down on a chair by one end of the table, at the only place with any cutlery actually placed, but she made no move for the food, as was correct of a guest awaiting the head of the house.

She was staring at the stars through a window when Doom entered the room, sitting at the end of the table just to her left.

"Eat," he said, "it is senseless to leave it all there." Sofia tried to restrain her eagerness at loading her plate with the finest looking food she had had in a long time. Doom allowed her to eat in silence for a while, not touching anything himself-which she chalked up to the time of night-instead observing her movements. After consuming a small piece of delectable fish, Sofia debated how to start conversation with this man she didn't know but was now sitting in his home.

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked in the end, deciding to go with the direct.

"Perhaps on how I have been unaware of your existence for so long, where you have been, how old you are," he stated, not fazed at all by her direct-ness.

"I have seen fourteen winters, Northern Scotland, and I would put that to time travel and my mother's intelligence," she replied, considering the question. "I had assumed she'd told you. She always told me I would meet my father as and when I was ready, a worthy heir to both your lines."

"And is that why you are here?"

Sofia paused, setting down her cutlery.

"No. No, she tried to kill me." Doom sat back at her declaration, studying her features closely and making a gesture for her to continue. "She came home one night several months ago-relatively of course, fifteen hundred years ago from current times-she was raving about her traitorous apprentice, and she tore through the building, destroying instruments furniture, books and then set her sights on me. Called me a mistake, and the bastard child of a traitor she should never have had." She rolled a silver fork in her fingers as she remembered the rain beating down on her face as she looked up at her mother. "I could hardly defend against her for long; she has centuries of experience and I am nowhere near complete in my own training. She shot me through a window and looked down upon me through the rain, yelled about casting me out….and set a legion of hell-beasts on me."

"A legion?"

"A few dozen, but that's the grammatically correct term. Murder of crows; legion of demons. Chased me across the moors," she raised a goblet of spiced wine to her lips, grateful for the warming feeling.

"Yet you survived."

"Naturally, I was hardly going to let my life end so early on. It would be undignified to stand before the Morrigan before ever having achieved anything." Sofia could swear she heard a snort of amusement at her comment, but it may have been her imagination.

"And you came here. Why?"

"I don't know. I had few options; a half trained sorceress has little enough use as it is, being so young is yet more of a detriment. As it stands I wished to continue my training from someone equally skilled-if not more so- than Morgana, and to have been close enough to her to… father a child, you would have to have been someone she respected and thereby powerful," he nodded slightly at her logical approach, seemingly approving. "And perhaps I wished to see if my father lived up to my imagination."

"And what is your verdict?"

"So far, exceeds expectations," she smiled, displaying her sharp teeth. Doom lapsed into silence once more, during which Sofia simply ate, respecting the time he took to mull over information.

"Why should Doom teach you?"

"I have a thirst for knowledge that can never be quenched, and a mind that is never at ease. My thoughts waking or sleeping are filled with ideas that I wish to make reality, and I have the will to make it so. You have no obligation to do anything for me, and I have little right to ask this of you the first time we have ever met, but I have no choice but to ask anyway. All I can give you in return is my loyalty, my fealty and my word."

"The word of a Von Doom is tantamount to a vow," he said after a moment.

"And that is a legacy I follow," Sofia replied, downing the last of her wine. Doom stood from his place, walking towards the door before pausing by the doorframe.

"Eat what you want, when you are ready to leave the Doombot outside will escort you to a room. You shall have your answer in the morning."

"As you wish father."

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After having the best night of sleep Sofia had had in months, another Doombot escorted her through seemingly endless corridors before they ended up in a throne room. Ceiling covered in gothic arches, tapestries adorning the walls, and a throne cut from solid stone upon which her father reclined.

Understanding the situation, she slowly approached the man, stopping before the dais, kneeling upon the first step. She bowed her head, making her long red hair fall from the depths of her cowl.

"To become my apprentice is no small undertaking. Doom does not suffer inadequacy or failure. And there is much for you to learn if you are to serve me properly." He stood up from his throne, metal shod feet at the edge of Sofia's peripheral vision. "Do you swear to follow and learn from my teachings to the best of your ability?"

"I do."

"Do you swear fealty to the throne of Latveria?"

"I do."

"Do you swear loyalty to Doom, in all things?"

"I do."

"Then rise as my vassal, Lady Sofia von Doom…. my daughter," the final part was quieter, and Sofia could barely restrain her smile at the term; his first and quite possibly only acknowledgement of their relationship of blood. "You have much to learn, not just magic, and I expect only the best in your results."

"Naturally. I am eager to learn," she replied, gazing up at the taller man. Here was someone who had risen to command a country, built up his castle and store of knowledge, a master of arts mystic and mundane.

"Then we shall begin," he said commandingly, and strode off towards the exit. Sofia fell into step beside and just behind the man, following in her father's footsteps.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Six Months Later

Sofia scrolled down her catalogue of 'heroes' as the American public declared them on one of her computer screens. Others displayed various other projects and a few news channels with photos of coloured humanoids with large toothy maws fighting against members of the Avengers. She twisted around as she heard someone entering her lab.

It was an odd room, near the top of her tower in castle Doom, full of devices both arcane and technological. For six months she had studied much of the advancements in science since her time, finding each discovery fascinating, easily taking to it with her polymath mind.

"Have you completed your design?" Doom inquired as he stepped into the crowded room.

"Yes, the gun mock-up is over there. The new lens increases possible power output by seventy percent. Of course the infusion techniques I used make it difficult to go about mass manufacturing, but I'm sure I can make enough for the Doombot models guarding the castle at least," she had grown confident with the terminology over time, her father of course expecting nothing less. She liked to think he was impressed by the speed at which she picked things up though.

"What are your thoughts on the symbiote bomb?" he said, regarding the news reels.

"Well, it worked exactly as intended, although Stark accessed the 'kill switch' before it was meant to be deployed. I made a note to upgrade the satellite uplink to stop anyone hacking it again."

"Indeed, it took him a disturbingly short time to access it."

Sofia was going to make a comment about updating some of the Doom O.S software when an alarm sounded from her computer. Swivelling round she addressed the machine that had switched all screens to radar and analysis.

"That's a Quinjet," Sofia said, looking at the shape the software was creating from the ship. "Clocked in at Mach 5, cloaked. We have company."

Doom muttered a few words which she immediately understood and stepped back from her computer, allowing herself to be enveloped in orange light. As the light died away she looked up from the courtyard she now stood in, gazing through the cloudy sky. Her searching eyes soon found a gunmetal grey jet, emblazoned with the distinctive 'A' logo disgorging several coloured figures.

"Orders?" she questioned.

"Escort them from Latverian soil. Forcibly," Doom replied. Sofia took to her normal fighting stance, dagger drawn at his words. Figures dropped to the courtyard in front of them, headed up by a red and gold armoured man.

"Victor von Doom, as director of SHIELD I am arresting you for crimes against mankind," the man declared, his voice distorted by electronics.

"I do not recognize your authority," Doom stated.

"I expected as much," Iron Man replied, firing off a repulsor beam at his adversary, which he easily deflected with magic.

Sofia immediately started chanting, causing purple magic to suffuse her hands and eyes, making her look quite terrifying through the dark depths of her hood. Ms. Marvel and Spider woman began making their way towards her, each raising hands when she completed the spell that was part incantation, and part prayer. As the last syllable dropped from her lips, the ground shook lightly. The earth cracked open, and several lumbering beasts came forth from the rents in the ground. Bodies summoned through Gaea, and souls of the dead, they looked once at Sofia, and then at those who opposed her. With animalistic cries of rage they attacked the gathered heroes, catching Ares and Wonder man off guard as they tried to get near Doom.

Sofia's gaze was torn away from her father as a green blast of energy nearly hit her, causing her to turn back to Spider woman. Concentrating on her own foes, she blasted a bolt of magical energy in return, that the woman deftly avoided. She stepped back as Doombots began to swarm from a doorway, and began empowering them with magic, shielding them from harsher blows.

"Fight man-to-man you cowardly piece of-," a male voice shouted from somewhere behind her. Sofia backed up so as to avoid the heroes that were getting closer to her, fighting past the hell-beasts and machines far too quickly for her liking. She began a chant to once more summon the animals from the earth when she became aware of a presence behind her, she turned all too slowly, only having time to see an axe fall and break through her shields. And then there was pain.

She screamed in agony as her hand clasped her left shoulder where a section of skin had been cut away. It was merely a flesh wound in depth, but the red blood swelling to the surface seemed to boil and steam at the wound. ' _Iron_ ,' Sofia realised as the muscular man stood by her, looking honestly surprised his attack had made it through her shields. Iron was poison to Fae, and even diluted with three quarters of human blood it still burnt.

She raised her other hand and started casting a spell to blast the dangerous God away, but was caught off guard by a blast from Ms. Marvel that hit in her stomach and threw her backwards to collide with a wall. She cried out in pain, eyes watering as she felt the impact on her back.

Nearby where she had landed, Doom turned his head from a subdued Iron Man to stare at her, but did not stop his breathless chanting as orange light suffused his body.

A man clad in yellow and blue descended from the jet above, and Sofia's heart froze. The Sentry.

The Sentry floated down to Doom, moving past his barriers like they were nothing and grasped a hand on his face. Iron Man quickly evaded his bonds now that her father's concentration was on the man with the power of a thousand exploding stars.

"Victor von Doom, you are under arrest for crimes against humanity," Stark repeated.

With a show of yellow light, the Sentry ripped his hand away from Doom's head, removing his mask.

"Father!" Sofia cried out as his scarred face was exposed. She jumped up painfully from where she stood, inciting a spell that grasped the mask and placed it back upon her father's face as he laid on his back. She knew he held his dignity as highly important in the time she had come to know him, and his mask was a symbol of that. The mask _was_ Victor von Doom.

Sofia desperately tried to start a spell to teleport the pair away when large meaty hands grasped her from behind and slung something around her neck. She gasped as it tightened, and she felt suddenly cut off from something. Her hands flew to her neck to find the metal choker put on her, like a _collar_ , as if she were an animal. Anger grabbing her, she tried to recite a spell to remove it but gave a gasp as her throat seized up. Looking down, what were recognisably the famous crimson bands of Cyttorak wrapped around her slender neck, constricting her throat. After a few moments, they faded, allowing her to breathe once more.

Looking over to her father, she saw Iron man fitting a band around his armoured neck, made of black metal with a red gem in the centre, presumably the same as her own.

"Recognize my authority now?" Stark said to the fallen man, making Sofia grimace at his mocking tone. "And now to you," Stark said, turning to her. He visibly did a double take as he regarded her face, Ares having pulled back her hood when he put the collar on. "Christ, how old are you?"

"What should that matter?" she replied, fingering the blood stained bare flesh of her left arm, "you were perfectly happy to fight me moments ago."

"Sofia," Doom rasped as he pushed up from his place on the ground, "give them nothing." She nodded to him, understanding what his order meant considering where they were going.

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The judge banged his gavel as Sofia reclined in her seat, feigning complete ease as numerous men in 'cape-killer' armour surrounded her. Of course, he wasn't an actual judge in the normal sense, but a general of the United States Military; dealing with superhumans once remanded into custody was a military matter of course.

"Case resumed, court now in session," the man stated, "decision on whether Sofia von Doom, should be remanded into custody of the Avengers Initiative for training and rehabilitation or to the Raft, maximum security prison." She gazed disinterestedly around the room, considering the many men in uniform sitting around. "Young lady, I feel the need to impress upon you the seriousness of the situation you are in. You resisted arrest and fought side by side with one of the most infamous criminals of the modern age, since which you have barely said a word. We are aware you are a non-human-at least in part- and your genetics link you to Doctor Doom, you have tattoos on your shoulder and back based on the Celtic goddess of death, and you have magical abilities and as such we here could be fully justified in sending you to be contained at the raft."

Sofia smiled slightly at the thought of the black ink on her light skin; a circle of three ravens on her right shoulder, and stylised skeletal wings spreading across her back. Had this been her old times back when people knew and accepted that their gods existed, this would have been enough for people to treat her with fear and respect, if not outright reverence. A herald of the Morrigan was not to be trifled with. Alas, in the modern age most forgot their gods, forsaking them in favour of worshipping mortal 'celebrities.'

"Neither Doom or worshipping a fictional goddess will save you from prison, only your own words can. So will you say anything in your defence?" She scowled at his statement.

"Be very careful," she said softly, speaking for the first time, "who you call fictional. Unlike the gods of Asgard you have met recently, the Morrigan is more likely to send Bean Sidhe to quicken your fall into her embrace." The man sighed and leaned back, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Is that all you're going to say?" he asked tiredly. She simply smiled at him once more; her loyalty was absolute, to a von Doom word was bond. So if Doom wanted her at the raft, she would be at the raft. Sofia tore her gaze from the man and picked at an imaginary spot of dust on her orange uniform. Sadly they had taken her clothes and armour, unlike her father. While the Sentry may be capable of removing Victor von Doom's armour, perhaps only a combination of Stephen Strange and Reed Richards could achieve it otherwise. Still, with his magic restrained by one of these collars-doubtless something made by said sorcerer supreme-and his hands bound in adamantium, his armour was fairly useless to him, except for keeping his pride.

"Since the defendant refuses to say anything on her behalf, it is the decision of this court that she be sent to the Raft maximum security prison until such a time as she is willing to cooperate." He banged his gavel- a gesture Sofia found unnecessary- and stood. She stood from her seat at the same time, ignoring the cocking of guns at her movement, and mockingly bowed to the court at large. She then spun on her heel and walked to where armoured men were waiting to cuff her.

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Sofia sat serenely at a table in the corner of the courtyard, not paying any attention to the other inmates in the same orange garb as herself. Her first day at the raft was so far uneventful: the cell was small, iron barred, and in the low security section, the food was terrible, and this constituted a time when she was supposed to be exercising and instead she took to read her acquisition from the meagre library they offered the low-security inmates.

"Well lookie here," said a male voice from behind her: confident, arrogant, late twenties to early thirties.

Sofia turned on the metal bench to view the group of four people. The man who'd spoken was in front, blond, fairly tall, chewing a cocktail stick of all things, ' _How very clichéd_ ,' she thought. He was accompanied by a thin man with blue skin, red eyes and white hair, and two much larger men, one with a rocky face reminiscent of 'The Thing.' It would seem she was getting the chance to prove her spot in the pecking order earlier than anticipated.

"I heard they'd chucked a kid in here, but I didn't believe they meant an actual child. What did you get in here for, robbing a candy store?" he said mockingly, raising a couple of chuckles from his entourage.

Sofia placed her book upon the bench and stood up, her head barely reaching his pectorals. She cricked her head to one side, surveying Blondie as she had decided to dub him, and his cronies Blueboy, Meathead, and Rockhead.

Settling on a course of action, she promptly kneed Blondie in the crotch, and when his head ducked down on reflex, grabbed him by his blond hair and slammed his head into the metal table. Turning attention to Blueboy, she sent out a foot to connect with his stomach, hard, causing him to double up.

Meathead threw a punch down at her, which she stepped around while jumping upwards to kick off the wall of the compound. She caught Meathead's sweaty head and slammed it to the side against the metal wall with surprising force from her athletic frame.

By this time Rockhead had moved into position and she slid down onto her knees to avoid one punch, and ducked another before sticking her hands up from underneath to push the punch on to deck Blueboy who had just gotten his breath back.

"Little shit," he growled out.

"Never mess with a von Doom," she replied, grinning. He gave a growl of anger and sent a low punch down at her, so she couldn't duck under it with her small size. Instead, she leaped up on top of his giant fist, and pressing down a foot on his brown skin jumped up again to throw both arms around his bumpy head while pushing her legs over his shoulder. Her momentum was just enough to tip the lumbering man over, and she released his head as he began to fall, stepping lightly off on her feet while he crashed down on his back.

Sofia took a brief moment to survey the audience they had gathered-as well as swiftly approaching guards-then took a brief run up before landing a jumping kick on Rockhead's uneven head.

As she began to get up, guards came over and wrestled her to her feet. She only half-heartedly fought against them, wary of shock-sticks at their hips, and more focused on the groaning men trying to get up around her. She laughed as she was hauled away roughly, past inmates who either gaped, grinned or looked contemplatively at her. Sofia made sure to keep up the maniacal laugh until she was pulled through a door away from the other inmates.

She was dragged down several levels to the bowels of the facility, through numerous guard stations, before being dumped in a cell that was actually slightly larger than her original one. As the guards left, a force-field tinged electric blue flickered into place behind them. ' _At least there's no iron bars to give me a headache_ ,' Sofia considered as she looked through the translucent surface. What she saw caused her to smile.

"You're here sooner than expected," Doom commented from the cell opposite.

"Some idiots gave me a chance to prove I wasn't a little girl. Should deter most people from trying something, though I imagine I'll have to refresh their memory occasionally," she replied, looking around the place they were locked in. "I have to say, I expected less from solitary confinement, not more. I have more space to move in and better conversation than my normal cell."

"How long for?"

"They didn't say; probably only a few days. I just beat up a few morons, I doubt they consider me much of a threat," she sat down on her bunk contemplatively. "Do you have any idea for an exit strategy?"

"Not as of yet."

"Well, I'll see what I can do from the main section. If you need to speak to me, I'm sure you can send a message to me somehow and I'll do something to get me into solitary." She looked through the blue gauze to the armoured man. "It's good to see you father," she said more quietly. Doom, predictably, said nothing in return.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Three Months Later

Sofia's muscles strained and protested as she lifted herself up before flopping back down. Once again she heaved with her arms and pulled her slim body up towards the beam in the ceiling. Keeping fit when most of your hours were spent confined in a small space was one of few options to spend time with.

After what was her fiftieth pull-up she dropped her hands from the beam, and sat down on her bed where she had been standing. Though she had grown somewhat since she left her mother, it was still the only place from which she could reach the metal beams.

Still breathing heavily, Sofia leaned back, one leg pulled up on the bed with her while the other hung off the edge. Her attention was switched from her aching hands to the muffled sound of marching. She regarded the corridor beyond the iron bars that fronted her cell with mild interest. Her vigilance was rewarded by a small group of men in green jumpsuits, a woman in purple armour, and a man in a business suit.

"This is the first cell sir," the woman said, checking on a tablet of some sort.

"You here for my complaints about the iron bars?" Sofia asked loudly, attracting their attention. She was glad at that moment that light was scarce and her face was likely shrouded in shadow, people rarely took a fifteen year old girl seriously.

"Iron bars?" the man questioned, stepping forward. Sofia cocked her head as she identified him.

"Norman Osborn," she muttered to herself, sitting forward. "The iron gives me a headache, especially under constant exposure."

"And why would that be Miss von Doom," he asked.

"That would be telling," she replied, standing and walking over to the bars. "No, the question is what are you doing down here? People come to you for the Thunderbolts program, not the other way around."

"Things have changed," he stated, turning to the woman, "open the cell."

Sofia smiled as the bars slipped down into the floor mechanically, and raised an eyebrow when one of the soldiers handed her a bundle of green cloth and silver armour. She fixed her gaze on the group as she unfolded her clothes.

"Are you going to watch a girl get changed?" she asked coquettishly.

"You're not a girl," Osborn replied, to which Sofia simply laughed and turned around. She unzipped and stepped out of the orange uniform, baring her tattooed back to the onlookers with only her bra-strap obscuring the skeletal wing art and trio of swirls at the base of her neck. She pulled the green cloth over her head and with practiced ease, clasped it by her shoulder before fitting the various armour pieces to herself.

After slipping on her greaves, she turned around again to find Osborn openly staring her up and down. Sofia flicked up her cowl so only her slight grin was visible.

"What are you staring at?"

"You. You're quite the enigma," he replied. "Hand, where's Doom's cell?"

"This way sir," the woman replied, accessing her tablet once more. Sofia fell into step with the strange crowd, reserving her questions for a later date.

"Wait a second," the woman, Hand, said and soft fingers connected with the band wrapped around Sofia's neck. With a click the metal was removed from her skin, immediately making Sofia's hands fly to her now bare neck, massaging the skin she hadn't felt for many weeks. She rolled her shoulders a little as the feeling of being apart from her magic faded, and she felt free.

Experimentally Sofia whispered a spell, and a grin spread across her face as her trusty dagger appeared in her hand. She caressed the silver blade lovingly, feeling the sharp edge lightly before slipping it back into its sheath on her hip. When she looked up from the blade, they were just entering the corridor she knew to be maximum security, where the most dangerous of criminals had their solitary cells.

When the small party stopped moving, she leant back against the wall opposite the cell of an armoured man who was currently regarding her rescuer.

"Osborn," was Doom's only acknowledgement.

"Doom," he replied, gesturing to the woman seemingly only known as Hand, who pressed some buttons that opened the cell. She stepped up to the large man hesitantly, before reaching up to quickly remove the collar, and then the devices covering each of his hands that prevented him from moving his fingers lest he use an incantation. Once Sofia had seen the metal devices removed, she decided to voice her opinion.

"I know there is some saying about gift horses, but why are you doing this?" she addressed Osborn.

"You are both being released-having never been formally charged, and indeed being foreign nationals the US government had no right to hold you in the first place," he said.

"That does not answer my question." He smiled, and turned towards her father instead.

"I'm releasing you as a gesture of good faith, and in hope of fathering some trust. And perhaps persuading you to join a group I am creating."

"A group?" Doom said, speaking for the first time.

"A small group of people within power meeting together to mutual benefit. Namor wished you to be a part of this and I agreed, as representative of the mystic."

"You wish for your own version of the Illuminati," Sofia said, considering the group that had been publically ousted after the return of the Hulk.

"Essentially, yes. I've replaced Tony Stark in all other senses, it seems only appropriate," Osborn replied. "Emma Frost stands to represent the mutant populous, Namor the Atlanteans, but I cannot exactly bring Doctor Strange in."

"And you think Doom will be your pet sorcerer?" the man said, hands clenched in fists.

"No, like I said, this will be a group of equals meeting for mutual benefit. Anyway, regardless of what you decide, there's a chopper up top waiting to take you back to Latveria, these two HAMMER agents will escort you," Osborn gestured to two of the guards. "If you'll excuse me, I have someone else I need to see here as well."

#############################################################################################

Sofia shifted in her seat on the chopper, all too aware of the fact that she was sitting on steel. She instead tried to concentrate on the man beside her who had remained silent throughout their journey.

Finally caving to the need to talk, she muttered a quick incantation that would muffle their voices to the aircraft's other occupants.

"Thoughts on Osborn?" she inquired of her unmoving parent, who had his face cradled in one armoured gauntlet as he stared at the moving countryside of Europe.

"If you're thinking I am considering trusting him you are wrong," he states after a moment.

"I thought as much. It astounds me the American government has put a man with a history of mental illness and criminal work in charge of their defence. Then again their idea of a 'democracy' remains strange to me as well; society should be governed by those with the strength in hand to lead it."

"Indeed."

"Thinking of that, what will have happened to Latveria in our absence?"

"There are Doombots on hand that will automatically assume my mantle if the need arises, keeping up the illusion I am always there."

"Speaking of the place…" Sofia murmured, looking out of the helicopter. Doomstadt loomed in the distance, castle Doom standing resolutely tall above the city.

The pilot slowed the rotors, and the chopper began to land still a ways from the city. Sofia ended the muffling spell and quirked an eyebrow at the HAMMER agent sitting opposite.

"Why are we landing here?" she asked.

"Director Osborn does not want to be directly linked with you publically, so we're landing away from the public eye," the man replied. He then glanced over at her father and pulled a digital camera from within a pouch on his belt, "hey, can I get a photo?"

Doom turned his head slightly to glare at the man, who looked suitably cowed, stowing the device.

As the chopper landed, rotors winding down, the man opened the sliding doors and hopped out. Sofia gracefully followed, breathing in the fresh air of the vibrant landscape.

She turned to look back at her father but froze mid-spin, eyes locked on a female figure not far off. The red hair playing in the wind, green skin-tight outfit and rage-filled expression were all too familiar.

"Shit," she said simply, regarding her mother with something only describable as dread.

"Daughter mine," she said, voice dripping with malice, "lover mine."

"Morgana," Doom acknowledged, stepping up beside Sofia.

"I considered enacting my revenge while you languished in cells, but I felt it would have been lacking. No, crushing your hope as you finally return to your seat of power, that is a far sweeter victory."

Morgana began casting the first spell, raising her hands to conjure creatures from the earth. Sofia stepped back to do the same while Doom began to cast shields, but found herself cut off from the mother earth. Her mother's Fae blood was stronger than her own; less diluted, she had a stronger connection to the earth.

Sofia cursed in her head as the ground began cracking, clawed hands reaching up. Thinking desperately she summoned her grimoire to float in front of her, flipping open to a specific page even as she slit open the palm of her hand with her silver bladed dagger.

She chanted heavily in a grating tongue, reading the glyphs off the page rather than memory for this spell as the blood streaming from her hand formed occult symbols in the air.

"Still having to read from a book?" her mother mocked as she finished summoning her hell-beasts. Sofia ignored her, chanting only quicker. She took a deep breath in when she finished, whispering a spell to close the slit in her palm.

Within the circle of swirling crimson symbols, the empty space began to glow white. The white patch grew, and grew until its diameter was as great as a man was tall. From within the light, like a man reaching through a window, came a stubby grey hand, missing a finger from a normal human hand.

An arm followed the hand, and a body followed the arm, until the stocky grey humanoid stood before the portal, its single wide red eye glaring around. And it was followed by another, and another, the creatures dropping from the portal she had made to the other-where.

Sofia stood tall and channelled her powers, not in small part due to the blood glyphs that surrounded the portal, through the beasts, subjugating them, making her will their only desire. The beings known as the Mindless Ones turned as one towards her mother and army of roving beasts, and charged forward with only single-minded destruction.

Sofia placed her hands on her knees for a moment, just a moment she needed to catch her breath after the summoning. When she straightened, she saw that while the group of monsters and Mindless Ones engaged in brutal battle, Morgana and Doom traded breathless words, spells flying off but never hitting. She tracked one of those blasts of purple magic swerving away from her father to impact instead on the chopper and the two men who had been panicking beside it, incinerating them.

She glanced back to her fighting parents in time to hear her mother utter a final word.

"Bavaloomni."

Doom gave a cry of agony as the powerful spell ripped through his shields, purple magic suffusing his form.

"You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that," Morgana said gleefully. Doom tried to raise a hand surprisingly weakly, but was smashed back down into the ground by a great beast that had made its way past the Mindless.

Sofia heaved her tired form up and sent a spell to blast the animal away from her father, taking her dagger and re-opening the wound again she chanted once more, taking up position over Doom's prone form. Her mother sent another spell her way, but Sofia ignored it, ignored her light-headedness, and focused on her words and the glyphs forming in a circle around her. She finished just as the purple magic sputtered off of her barrier, the crimson glyphs creating a ward around her.

She swayed on the spot a second, trying to get her thoughts together. She absent-mindedly considered the bleeding slit on her hand, murmuring the healing spell once more.

"You focus too much on blood magic child. It leaves you vulnerable, and in this fight you are sorely outmatched," Morgana taunted from her place, stepping forwards through the remains of her group of Mindless. When one tried to get near her, she simply took its stumpy head off with a blast of purple without even breaking her stride.

Sofia backed up instinctively, and nearly tripped over something. With looking down she had the stark reminder that her father was lying on the ground. She quickly dropped to his side. A diagnostic certified he was alive, and his eyes burned with fiery purpose still, but he did not move a muscle and he said nothing as she tried a few revival spells. Sofia flinched as she felt magic sputter off her warding, quickly followed by another blast, and another.

Sofia looked up through the barrier at the enraged face of her mother. She snarled at the older woman; this was _not_ how it was going to end, she was _not_ going to die today. She was preparing her words to attack when she noticed a slight blur behind her mother. And then her head was ripped from her shoulders. Sofia blinked, and gaped slightly like a goldfish as none-other than the Sentry held the swiftly disintegrating head and body of the late Morgana le Fay.

"Well that was over quickly," a voice came from behind her, distorted through a modulator. Sofia turned around to see a man in Iron Man armour which had been painted red, white and blue touching down. He was swiftly followed by Ares, some young man with white hair she didn't recognise, and what appeared to be Ms. Marvel, Spiderman and Hawkeye. She knew however that they were not; the costumes were different for one thing, and their features were slightly off, wrong bone structure. "Hand, this is Iron Patriot. We're on the ground at Doomstadt."

"Is he really going to call himself that in public," 'Hawkeye' remarked.

"We need a clean-up team and evac, ASAP," the man continued, ignoring his teammate's quip. Sofia just about recognized his tone of voice through the electronics as being Norman Osborn, which explained a few things. "What's wrong with Doom?" the man asked, addressing her.

"You think you've won don't you?" Sofia asked him.

"Um, guys," the Sentry said quietly from behind her.

"She's dead, game over," Hawkeye replied, looking down at her.

"She's still alive in Avalon," she said.

"Hey, uh, something's wro-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh," the Sentry's protests turned into a scream, and Sofia twisted to see the man. His eyes glowed orange, and she had to shield her own as he exploded in a blast of heat. The energy rent what remained of her shields, and the whole group was thrown backwards.

"Sentry is down, I repeat Sentry is down," Osborn said as he picked himself up from where the explosion had thrown him. Sofia trained her eyes on where the Sentry had stood, and grimaced as she saw who had replaced him as the dust settled.

"Understand this, you simple mortals of flesh," Morgana began, as she stood there with yet another legion of monsters at her back. "I am not from your time. Even if you kill me here, I can come back from my time in the far past and destroy you. Do it again and I will come back in your childhood and remove you from existence."

"Morgana! I am Ares, God of war, son of Zeus," the muscular man stated, "and I demand you go back whence you came!"

"It _is_ you mighty Ares, my humblest apologies for not recognizing you before," Morgana drawled out. "Though, you say Zeus' name as if your father cares whether you live or die. In this time I know he does not. Pavati Mulandooso."

As soon as the words left her lips, the black-suited Spiderman cringed, and clutched his head in his hands. With a groan, the man exploded outwards in a mass of ebony, with a large gaping maw that snapped up the War God, and spat him out over the way.

Sofia simply swore and threw a blast of purple energy at her mother, and another, and another. Arcs of violet energy spattered away from the green clad witch who simply grinned.

"It seems you at least grew a spine under your father. Face me then, daughter mine," her mother proclaimed, giving a gesture to her forces that quickly moved to engage the costumed group of 'Avengers.'

The pair set to duelling as the world around them turned to a chaotic mess. Mother faced off daughter and each chanted their words as amethyst like energy broiled in the air between them, each countering the others moves even as they were made. Sofia fired off significantly fewer attacks, but she held her defence.

"Get close to le Fay!" Osborn ordered as he was beset by what was his pet Spiderman.

"What are we gonna fucking do?" Hawkeye yelled, "last time we killed her, she came back and took one of ours. Five more times and she's golden."

Ares acknowledged the argument with a roar of inarticulate anger, smashing his way through beasts until he faced Morgana herself. She turned slightly towards him, backing away from the deadly iron axe Sofia was all too familiar with while trying to defend against her daughters attacks.

None of the three of them saw the purple suited man coming, ending a leap while holding out an arrow which he swiftly plunged into Morgana's heart. The woman clutched at the instrument that protruded forwards through her chest helplessly, light fading from her eyes as her body and that of her legion began to dissipate once more.

Once she saw the life leaving the body, Sofia turned and jumped to where Doom's form still lay crumpled.

"Father?" she asked, placing a hand on his forehead. The man groaned, but did not move.

"Le Fay," he rasped out, barely audible. The aforementioned woman had hit him with something advanced that would take him a while to work past, so Sofia gathered her options in her mind.

"Is she dead now, or is she just going to come back again?" Ms Marvel queried to the group at large.

"The latter," Sofia answered tersely, then started to make her way over to the God of War. "Lord Ares, I need to borrow your blood."

"What?" the man said confusedly as Sofia approached him, dagger drawn. Sofia gazed warily at the gathering of purple energy on the hill opposite.

"You have the most powerful blood here," she replied, slicing her blade across his muscly forearm, "just shut up and let me work and we might just survive this. The rest of you, give me time to charge the spell."

She sheathed the blade, and stuck her hands out to begin reciting, crimson flowing from the open wound to form Gaelic Glyphs in the air.

"Take a position," Wolverine shouted, running forward to engage the oncoming horde.

"I think taking a position was what got me in this crap in the first place," the white haired youth quipped, firing off a pair of pistols as he leapt into the fray.

Ares swung his axe again and again, defending the small position Sofia had taken behind him, blood still pouring from his cut into the air.

"Victor? Victor can you hear me, we need your help," Osborn cried from where he had some kind of blue shield up around her father's prone form.

Sofia let it all fade into background noise as she concentrated on the spell, harnessing the power of an Olympian into an attack. With a cry of effort she uttered the last syllable, the runes in the air glowing a deep purple before disgorging the colourful energy in a solid beam of violet light, straight at Morgana. The woman's body gave way immediately under the raw power of the blast, dissipating into atoms.

Sofia doubled up slightly, breathing heavily as she rested hands on her knees. Her body couldn't take much more of this; she simply didn't have the energy yet. Damn her physical age.

"Did you just kill your own mother?" the youth inquired as he walked over, the beasts disappearing once more.

"Well she wouldn't be the only one here," Hawkeye commented.

"Doom?" Osborn repeated again, looking down at the fallen man, "we could really use some damn help here."

"Run away," he rasped out, "this fight is not yours."

"Father you need to use the time cube," Sofia said, walking over to them, "it's the only way to end this."

"Sofia-," he tried to start, but she cut him off.

"No, you know it's the only option," she turned to Osborn, "get him away from here, we'll hold off my mother as long as possible."

"I don't take orders from-," the man started.

"Don't talk, just do it!" she demanded. Reluctantly, the man took Doom in his arms and flew into the sky on repulsors.

"We'll hold off le Fay?" Ms. Marvel said scathingly, "and how do you plan to do that? You look dead on your feet and every time we kill her she just comes back."

"Details," Sofia said simply, falling back to sit on a rock, trying to catch her breath still.

"Err, guys," interjected Hawkeye, who was staring into the sky, "is that a fucking dragon?"

Sofia followed the man's gaze into the sky, where indeed, a redheaded figure could be seen waving a sword from atop said scaly beast.

"Yes," Sofia replied tiredly, "yes that's a fucking dragon."

#############################################################################################

Sofia had become so used to the constant fighting that when her next blast of magic landed on empty space she was somewhat surprised, and it took her brain a moment to process that all the monsters were gone. As well as her mother.

"Who killed her this time?" Ms. Marvel inquired.

"No-one, she just vanished," Wolverine replied, staring at a space not far off as he tried to keep his tattered costume together.

"Finally some good news," Sofia stated, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"What do you mean?" Hawkeye asked.

"I mean my father must have dealt with her in her own time. She's not coming back."

"How do you know that O' mystic Meg? How old even are you anyway?" Hawkeye stated, looking around the land and sky trying to find a trace of the witch.

"Why do people always come back to my age?" Sofia remarked idly. "I'm still just as capable of beating their asses into the ground."

"Language," said a familiar voice behind her. Sofia spun on the spot to regard the two armoured men who had earlier flown off, Doom holding a cauldron by its metal hoop for some reason. "It is unbefitting of a lady."

"My apologies father," she stated, giving a mock curtsey.

"Hey, what happened to Ares?" the now more human sized Spiderman said, poking the stone statue that was the God of War.

"Simple petrification spell," Sofia responded, even as her father made the correct gestures to undo it. "My mother is not quite unhinged enough to incur the Lord of Olympus' wrath." She had to withhold a laugh as the black suited man back stepped quickly from Ares as the unfrozen God unleashed the swing of his axe he had been in the middle of.

"What about Sentry?" Ms Marvel said. The question hung heavy in the air for a long few moments. Sofia merely shaded her eyes against the Sun as a Quinjet soared out of the sky to land by where they stood.

"I'm sorry Bob," Osborn said, causing her to turn and see him having taken his helmet off. "I thought you….damn." Sofia kept her thoughts on the matter to herself; she personally believed having a mentally unstable person with power the likes of which few in the universe held 'off the table' as it were would be a good thing. Instead, she stood up on a hillock and stared towards Doomstadt, which had remained blissfully untouched by the battle that had taken place.

"Time to return home," she murmured, gazing up at the castle.

"Doom, no-one's ever going to know this happened," Osborn stated.

"I do not need or require your pity," the man stated in return.

"No. Frankly, I can't be seen to be running halfway around the world to help you," he replied, and after a pause in which her father said nothing: "And you're welcome! Let's go."

Sofia did not turn around at the sound of the Quinjet departing, nor when she felt her father's presence by her side.

"I can't wait to have a bath again," she remarked, looking over at her tower, longing for the luxury of her large tub once again after months of prison showers.

"I have something for you," Doom replied, causing her to turn around. The man held out the dark metal cauldron filled with colourless liquid

"A cauldron of water?" she asked, confused. Her eyes widened however as she read the inscriptions and runes along the side. "Taken from Avalon? This….I can use this, thank you father."

Doom did not reply, simply staring over at Doomstadt while his battered cape whipped about in the wind.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sofia flicked her pen as she finished transcribing a line from the book she was reading into her faithful grimoire. The tome it was taken from supposedly contained spells found in the Book of the Vishanti, currently held by Stephen Strange as Sorcerer Supreme. She was broadening her horizons in magic away from incantation and blood runes as she often fell back to, to that of hand gestures and summoning. Increasing her repertoire in the mystic sense was something she had perhaps neglected in the weeks leading up to her imprisonment, instead concentrating more on the technological advances she had been studying.

Then again, technology did have its uses, as the new device wrapped around her ear and the back of her head entailed. A useful little machine that extended a small glass visor over her right eye when required, giving information, targeting systems and interfacing capabilities with various systems. The compact little machine was currently withdrawn back into the depths of her flaming red hair, out of sight. She had uploaded Doom OS hacking software that the man himself had designed onto it, though was having problems with upload times being held back by the physical hardware.

She was broken from her reverie by some form of commotion somewhere by the entrance to the library. Sofia snapped her grimoire shut, and silently banished it out of existence until it was summoned again. Rising from her seat, she stalked past one of the many bookshelves into a sight that gave her slight déjà vu.

A girl, somewhere around her own age, was cornered by the two Doombots by the entrance.

"You will surrender your weapons and identify yourself or you will be terminated," the machine intoned, raising its arm at the girl.

"Cease," Sofia called out, playing up her sense of déjà vu again. The robots obediently lowered their weapons and stepped aside to fully reveal the intruder, or _intruders_ Sofia realised as a head poked its way around the girl's body. "Why is this castle so easy for children to break into?" she muttered to herself absent mindedly, regarding the pair carefully as she strode over to them.

The girl was slightly taller than Sofia, but looked a fraction younger if her eyes were right. She had fairly long blonde hair, creamy skin and electric blue eyes. The blue was further matched by the oversized shirt she wore, with a blue body and black sleeves, emblazoned with a distinctive '4' logo in the centre. Her legs were clad in only a pair of tan shorts and trainers.

The other was dressed quite differently; he shared several features with his partner-blue eyes, blonde hair-but was dressed, of all things, as a cowboy, complete with plastic pistols. He looked around eight or nine as he hid slightly behind his presumed sister.

"Are we not the first to get in then?" the girl said, seemingly having heard Sofia's mutterings.

"No, that would be me. At least I presume so," she replied, looking the blonde up and down. "Now, as the robot asked you previously, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm Valeria and the cowboy behind me is Franklin, my little brother. We're here to see Uncle Doom." Sofia's eyebrow rose, though she doubted the girl could see it under the hood that was enchanted to shroud her face.

"Uncle?" she questioned.

"He delivered me when I was born, and he's sorta been an estranged uncle since then. In-between the attempts to kill my dad and steal my mom of course."

"Which is why we're not supposed to be here," the boy piped up.

"Oh shush," Valeria replied, "where else were we going to go right now? Besides, I've been wanting to see him for ages."

"I know; that's why mom and dad told you not to."

"Well, they're not here right now, and I'm in charge."

"Says who?"

"Says me."

"That's not fair."

Sofia coughed, causing the siblings to turn back to her instead of arguing.

"As much as this isn't amusing," Sofia interjected, "it doesn't explain what you're doing here. Or how you broke in."

"They're both classified above Omega-level powers, the wards mainly deal with magical threats," said a voice behind her. Sofia turned to find her father with his arms folded by one of the bookshelves. "What are you doing here child?"

"Well, Normal Osborn showed up while our parents are having some problems in the Negative Zone and tried to remand us into government custody," the girl answered.

"And then he set that Venom guy on us," Franklin interjected.

"Yeah, I might have pissed him off and he tried to kill us. Anyway, this was the first place I thought of to lay low for a few hours until everyone gets back from the N-Zone," Valeria finished. Doom stood silent for a long while.

"Victor von Doom is not a 'babysitter,'" he growled out.

"Aw c'mon Uncle Doom, it's just for a few hours, and it's been months since we've seen you," Valeria protested.

"When are the Asgardian envoys arriving?" Sofia inquired towards her father.

"Within the hour."

"Oh," the blonde said quietly, losing her enthusiasm, "you already have guests?"

"Indeed," the man replied. The girl looked so deflated from her previous perkiness that Sofia almost felt sad for her.

"Father I could look after them," she suggested, watching the blonde's eyes snap to her own.

"Are you sure?" the man asked.

"Yes, I can take care of a pair of children; I dealt with worse at the Raft. Tell Loki I said 'hi.'"

The stoic man looked between the minors, before nodding his head at Sofia almost imperceptibly, and taking his leave.

"Wow," Franklin said as Doom walked out of the library, "he actually trusts you."

"Well I am his daughter," Sofia replied, "follow me." She began to walk through the other doorway, heading in the direction of her own tower.

"Wait, did you say the Raft?" Valeria questioned as she followed the green cloaked teen.

"Yes."

"The prison?"

"Yes."

"But, you're like my age."

"And how old are you?"

"Turned fifteen a few weeks ago."

"Well I spent my fifteenth in a cell, roughly two months ago," Sofia turned to look at the blonde, "Valeria, I dislike being judged on my age. I fail to see how it matters."

"Sorry, and uh, call me Val," the girl said sheepishly, "and I agree with you there, I always hate it when adults talk down to you because of your age."

"But you always talk down to me!" Franklin protested.

"Yeah but you still need a booster seat. And you're not the one who surpassed daddy's intellect at age four."

"Why do you always come back to that? Just because you think you're the smart one."

"I am the smart one."

"Mom says that's hubris."

"Actually it's narcissism."

Sofia let a chuckle fall from her lips as she began to climb the spiral stairs at the base of her tower, making two pairs of blue eyes snap back to their host.

"Do you two always argue this much?" she inquired.

"He's my brother," Valeria replied, even as Franklin said "She's my sister," as if that explained everything.

Sofia laughed once more as she pushed open the oaken door that led into her laboratory. She immediately moved over to her computer workstation and tapped a few keys to wake up the machine.

"Err; will your dad be okay with us being in here?" Franklin asked as he looked around at the various pieces of magical and technological paraphernalia.

"I don't see why not, it's my laboratory after all. Any problems in here are my responsibility," she replied off handedly.

"You have your own lab?" Valeria said, sounding astonished.

"Where else would I conduct my experiments? My father gave me this tower in which to live; there's this room, a practice room for testing equipment or spells, a gym, a small library and my bedroom."

"And he just gave you all this?" Franklin asked, sounding equally as awed as his sister.

"Well, he gave me an empty tower and the money to procure whatever I needed."

"That is so cool," Valeria said, coming over to stand by Sofia while the redhead tapped commands into the computer, "our dad only lets us work in his lab when he's supervising, and he _always_ tries to interfere. Mom's better, but she still tries to stop us doing a lot of stuff."

"Is this about that time travel thing again?" Franklin piped up from where he was trying to read the runes engraved into a glass cabinet.

"I totally would have been able to handle that," Valeria said.

"You wanted to use a nuke."

"Only 500 kilotons! And you're the one who wanted to pet a dinosaur."

"So did you!"

"Oh, trust me on that one, you don't want to," Sofia interjected.

"What, pet a dinosaur? We know, we had a look at their eating habits afterwards."

"I'm not fond of reptiles. This time last week I was fighting my mother on dragon-back, and a month before then I was dealing with several members of the 'Serpent Society.'" Sofia loaded up a program on her computer that activated a few mechanical arms in an open space by the side of the room. Within the space in between them a ball of water quickly formed, floating in the air.

"What's that?" Valeria inquired.

"Containment field and suspended water. I want to test how quickly a spell I learnt earlier will heat a few litres of water," she replied, getting up and standing over by the machine.

"Didn't you say you had a room upstairs for testing new spells?" the blonde interjected.

"Oh this is hardly something along the lines of blood magic or my normal offensive spells, just a simple heating spell," she replied. With that she summoned her grimoire, opening it to the page she had just finished inking when the pair had arrived.

"What's that?" Franklin asked, peering over at the worn leather book.

"My grimoire; it contains all the magical knowledge I have accumulated over the years, as well as plenty of other things. Designs, projects, spell crafting, every sorcerer has one." Leaving the book to hang in the air, she assumed her casting stance and set her fingers into the correct gesture and saying the three word incantation for the spell.

Sofia was expecting some heat from the boiling water after a moment, but she was unprepared for a column of fire to shoot from between her fingertips, turning the water to steam, and setting a curtain on the other side on fire.

Swearing colourfully she ended the spell, and muttered another to put out the fire that had burnt the bottom end of a red curtain away. She stood there for a moment, regarding the smouldering fabric before blushing furiously at the feminine laughter that came from behind her.

"'Just a simple heating spell,'" Valeria got out between giggles.

Cheeks the same colour as her hair, Sofia read through the text in her grimoire to see where she'd gone wrong. She mentally berated herself as she discovered her mistake.

"Mixed the middle and index fingers up," she muttered; the difference in hand gesture would have changed the execution of the spell.

"There's a big difference between a heating spell and a flamethrower," Valeria chortled.

"Well, at least I've gained a new offensive spell," Sofia said in return, poking the burnt end of her curtain.

"Hey, what's this thing which looks like half an ice-cream scoop?" Franklin asked from where he was investigating the other side of the room, holding up the implement.

"That is a mithril tool for carving glyphs and sigils. Also what's an ice cream scoop?"

"What do you mean 'what's an ice cream scoop?' A scoop for ice cream," Valeria replied, wiping tears from her eyes.

"What does frozen water have to do with dairy products?" Sofia replied confusedly. The blonde siblings stared at her incredulously.

"Do you not know what ice cream is?" Franklin asked, making it sound like she slaughtered baby puppies.

"Should I?" she replied, still baffled.

"What year were you born in?"

"Anno Domini 578, King Baetan was upon the Scottish throne." Sofia deadpanned. Both children looked at her like she had grown a second head at this statement. Valeria recovered first.

"Time Travel aside, just to clarify; you have _never_ had ice cream?" the blonde asked.

"No," Sofia replied simply.

"Right then," Valeria declared, stalking over to a set of glass doors that led onto a balcony and throwing them open. "I hereby appoint myself your guide to the new age, and first on the list is ice cream! It's only just about five, so there must be a few shops left open in the city."

"What happened to laying low in the castle?" Sofia said amusedly.

"This takes precedence, and that was just an excuse to come here anyway."

"So you admit it!" Franklin cried triumphantly, and Valeria waved him off as if it was irrelevant.

"Well, it was fairly obvious. Anyway, ice cream more important."

Sofia laughed at the sibling antics, joining Valeria on the balcony to look down upon the city of Doomstadt. Without really thinking about it, she cast her spell to give her shadowy wings, flexing them as she did.

"Whoa," Franklin stated, coming up from behind her. "Magic rocks."

"I just thought, I won't be able to carry you both with these," she sighed, levitation spells were so boring compared to proper flying. Valeria coughed heavily from beside her, making Sofia turn to the teen who was grinning as she floated above the ground on a translucent disk.

"By your lead Miss von Doom," she said, bowing slightly.

"Sofia," she replied, turning around to grab the smaller boy, pulling him to the edge of the balcony and hooking her arms under his. "Hold on tight cowboy."

"Wait," the child responded," I'm not so sure-whoaaaaaaaa."

#############################################################################################

The perks of being a von Doom just seemed to keep expanding Sofia thought to herself, while swallowing a mouthful of toffee creamy goodness. Though she had made few public appearances, she and her clothes were well known enough that the man running a dedicated ice cream store had been more than happy to give them large helpings of frozen delight, which the trio were currently consuming from bowls while laying around in her bedroom. Sofia was curled up in a window seat, while Valeria sat on a futon with Franklin on the floor by her feet.

"What did I tell you, hm? Toffee and honeycomb, nothing beats it," Valeria asked from her place on the cushions.

"I concur Valer-sorry, Val," Sofia replied, happily licking her spoon.

"I still prefer chocolate," Franklin added, "and I still don't understand how you didn't know about ice cream."

"I had more than a millennium of history and scientific advancement to catch up on," Sofia protested.

"But it's ice cream!" Franklin said as if that was all that needed be said. Valeria laughed and ruffled her brother's hair.

"I know Franklin, I know," she said. "Hey, we never asked, why did you end up travelling fifteen hundred years or whatever?"

"Oh that; well, my mother tried to kill me so I went to find my father. Who incidentally didn't know I existed, which was awkward when we first met."

"Your mother tried to kill you?" Franklin asked incredulously, his ice cream forgotten briefly.

"Yes. Morgana le Fay is hardly known as being on the right side of sane on the best of days though." Sofia was taking in another scoop of ice cream when she realised the two were staring at her in that odd way again. "If you keep making faces like that you just might get stuck like it."

"But, your mother was Morgana le Fay?" Valeria asked, slightly gobsmacked once again.

"That's what I said."

"The sorceress?" Franklin continued.

"Aye."

"From the stories of King Arthur and Mordred and people?" Valeria queried.

"Arthur Pendragon was my uncle-though I never met him-and I only met Mordred a few times, mostly when my mother pitted us against each other." After a moment's silence Franklin was the first to recover this time.

"Who won?" he inquired.

"Me," Sofia replied, grinning ferally.

"But, those people are stories; they're not real," Valeria protested. Sofia in return pushed back her hood, letting loose her long red locks, and pushed aside her crimson mane to display her left ear prominently. The pair stared at the small, but noticeable pointed tip of her ear.

"Be careful what you call 'not real,'" she said, smiling.

"Statement rescinded," Valeria retorted quickly.

Sofia simply scooped up another swirl of swiftly melting ice cream, slightly enjoying the awed looks they were giving her.

"You look a lot younger without the hood," Franklin said quietly.

"It's enchanted to shroud most of my face in shadow, makes people take me a bit more seriously. But, pull it back and the magic is broken," Sofia replied.

"That sounds like a line from a Disney movie," Franklin commented.

"Hey, that's another thing you've probably missed out on," Valeria stated, gesturing with a spoon at Sofia. "Have you ever seen any Disney films? Or any films even?"

"The only things I've watched on television have been a few documentaries and occasionally news channels. I have never indulged in any form of fiction; my mother always regarded it as frivolous."

"Okay, fire up that computer," Valeria replied while gesturing at the machine at a desk opposite the futon she was reclining on. "As your official guide to the 21st Century, I state next on the list is some kind of silly kids' movie." Sofia laughed, and placed her bowl upon the window seat, walking over to boot up the computer.

"Guide me O' wise one, what am I to google?" Sofia said.

"God I don't even know, so many classics to choose from," Valera considered, twirling her silver spoon around as she weighed up options in her head.

"What about Shrek?" Franklin piped up from around her feet. Valeria visibly blinked, then burst out laughing.

"Yes, yes that's perfect," she said, chortling. "Hang on, I'll load up Netflix."

#############################################################################################

"Yes, oh that's so right," Sofia laughed, "men are always compensating for something." Valeria had screwed her nose up slightly while trying not to laugh.

"You know, I don't remember this having so many dirty jokes," she remarked.

"What do you mean Val?" Franklin asked, confused, staring up at the pair of teenage girls sitting side-by-side on the futon.

"Nothing brother mine, I'll explain when you're older," she replied quickly.

"It's still true though," Sofia continued, "you see it all the time. I mean Iron Man, look at all that red and gold; he's clearly trying to make up for something." Valeria gave a bark of laughter before both girls descended into giggles, Franklin remaining blissfully unaware of the joke. Valeria tapped Sofia's shoulder and managed to stutter out a name between laughter.

"Wolverine," she choked out, sending them into fresh fits of giggling as they considered the short and famously angry man.

"What's so funny?" Franklin asked again, still baffled by the girls' reaction to the film.

"Oh dear god," Valeria said, trying to stop laughing, "if my parents were here they'd be very cross." Inevitably this only made her laugh harder.

"I think my father would merely glare at me for a moment and tell me such crass-ness was unbefitting of a von Doom," Sofia added.

"Hey, where are our parents anyway?" Franklin said, tearing the duo from their laughing fit, "they should probably be out of the N-Zone by now."

"I can find out if you like," Sofia replied, reaching over to press a button that paused the forgotten movie.

"What? How?" Valeria asked, intrigued. Sofia merely grinned, and stood up, moving to an open section of room she murmured a spell to bring up her cauldron from downstairs, creating a flash of purple light.

"Ooh, are you going to make a potion or something?" Franklin inquired, bounding over.

"Not quite," Sofia replied, making hand gestures at the cauldron she intoned: "Waters of Avalon show me Reed Richards, show me Mister Fantastic."

The water in the cauldron clouded over for a moment before a picture began to form in the still water. It was of a strange transport vehicle with four compartments, flying through the air at some speed. The occupants were instantly recognisable as the 'Fantastic Four,' each bearing looks of worry or grimaces on their faces.

"That's the Fantasticar," Valeria stated somewhat morosely.

"By the stars above it, I'm guessing somewhere over Eastern Germany. And moving fast," Sofia added, "they're most likely on their way here." Sofia realised the thought had made her stomach seemingly sink slightly. She released the spell, letting the water return to normal transparency.

"They'll probably be here soon," the blonde girl stated, looking through the glass doors that led onto the upper balcony of the tower. "I guess all good things have to come to an end."

"It has been….good," Sofia agreed, stepping closer to the girl. "I can't say I've enjoyed myself this much in….well, ever."

Franklin moved ahead of the pair, opening the glass doors and stepping out onto the balcony. The girls slowly followed him, heads inclined to the sky. They remained silent as a speck slowly grew into a grey vehicle that circled the castle before flying around to the balcony where it hung in mid-air before the masonry.

"Valeria Richards!" Susan Richards' voice was not loud, but it was by no means quiet as the blonde woman jumped out of the flying vehicle to confront her children.

"Mom, Norman Osborn was-," the girl tried to protest, but was swiftly but off.

"No buts, I have seen the security footage, and I agree you should have left rather than get shot at, but coming here of all places? Did we not specifically warn you about this? You knew this was just as dangerous as staying." she ranted.

"Mom, Uncle Doom would never hurt me, you know that."

"I shall be the judge of that young lady; do you have any idea how worried we were about you?"

"Yes! And I've been trying to disprove that by coming here. We haven't been hurt in any way, shape or form. I know you have a feud with him, and all I want is for you to drop it. Is that so much to ask?" Valeria asked her mother, both red-faced.

"Valeria that man just escaped from prison" the woman continued, and Sofia chose that point to make herself known from where she had silently been observing with a raised eyebrow.

"Released out of prison actually," she stated, bringing six heads to turn and face her. The Invisible Woman blinked slightly as she regarded the crimson haired teen. "We were wrongfully imprisoned and never actually charged."

"What my wife was trying to say," started the family patriarch diplomatically, as he stepped out of his vehicle on elastic limbs. "Was that we have a… history with your father, with numerous conflicts over the years."

"And as such you don't trust him, don't worry I know exactly what your wife meant," Sofia finished. "I don't hold it against you; I'd probably be the same after the number of conflicts between you. Although I do take issue with the idea that they are unsafe here, and I'd like to clarify: I promise you that your children will never come to harm within these castle walls. And I think you have known my father long enough to know that the word of a von Doom is their bond." Sofia smiled at the man softly as he stepped onto the stone balcony, trying not to turn it into a full blown grin as she saw Valeria mouth 'thank you' at her.

"That may be," replied the intellectual man, "but I believe they have outstayed their welcome, and it's about time they got home to bed." He gave a pointed glance at both his daughter and wife before stepping back into the Fantasticar, swiftly followed by his wife and son. Valeria was the last to remain on the platform as she shuffled over to Sofia.

"Hey, uh," the girl rubbed her arm awkwardly, "my brother's having a birthday party next Friday and I'd like to have a friend there, y'know, to laugh at him or something and uh, would you like to come?" Sofia stared at the blonde girl for a long moment, stunned both at the request and at the term of endearment she had used. Sofia had known few people in her short life, and had never had someone to call 'friend.' She remained silent for so long that the blonde started to turn away, taking it as a sign of rejection and seeming surprised when Sofia caught her arm to pull her back.

"Well, I could hardly continue learning about the 21st Century without my faithful guide could I?" she replied, smiling.

Valeria made a noise that sounded distinctly like a squeal before leaping forward and throwing her arms around Sofia in a hug. The redhead stiffened at the contact, but slowly softened into the warm embrace after a second, enjoying the feel of the teenager's body against her own. She was almost sad when the girl pulled away.

"Friday, 2pm," she clarified, before skipping happily over to her waiting family.

"Baxter Building?" Sofia asked.

"Yep."

"I'll see you there," she replied, and set to waving as the vehicle turned away from the tower and shot off into the distance with incredible speed, quickly becoming a speck.

Sofia continued to stare into the sky for a while, before stepping back into her bedroom. She paused, seeing the movie still paused on her computer, then smiled, sat herself before the screen and pressed play.

As the sounds of the comedic ogre and his companion filled the room once more, Sofia's mind drifted to a certain blonde haired teen.

' _Friend_.' It felt good.

 **A/N: Yes, I am aware that the two characters they mentioned are in fact two of Marvel's biggest womanizers, but this is a pair of teenagers letting loose and being silly, cut 'em some slack**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: If anyone was actually paying attention to this fic, I apologise for lack of updating. In total there's 10 1/2 chapters in existance. I'll be uploading them in unaltered form, un-beta'd and unfinished. I'm not going to be finishing this anytime soon, and I didn't like how it went at the end; too much into OOC.  
**

Chapter 6

"Look, I've told you already, no invitation, you ain't going up," the doorman insisted.

"Oh look at me will you, do I look like an ordinary member of the public?" Sofia demanded of the obstinate man, quickly losing her patience.

"I'm sorry missy, rules are rules," he stated with finality. Sofia felt her anger rising slightly at the term she interpreted as being towards her age.

"Right, if that's the way it's going to be, I'll take the quick way up," she told him, giving a feral smile. She muttered her spell to empower her with wings, braced herself and leapt off into the air in front of the man, deliberately buffeting him with some of the wind.

Sofia turned her body into a streamlined shape, flapping all the while as the glass wall of the building flashed by. When she passed the top of the tower, she flared her wings, slowing herself to gracefully arc back down and step onto the large balcony area where numerous people were gathered.

She nonchalantly dusted a bit of imaginary dust from her shoulder as she banished the wings, trying not to feel self-conscious at all the stares.

"Miss von Doom," a voice declared, and Sofia looked up to see Valeria stalking over in her seemingly patented oversized T shirt. "You are late."

"Fashionably," she replied, "isn't that a thing?"

"Not when you don't understand the concept."

"Well, I apologise, I was double checking this thing's runic matrix," she hefted a box wrapped in green with a purple ribbon.

"Runic….what have you got him?"

"You'll have to wait and see," she replied teasingly. "Where is the boy himself?"

"He's over there with a couple of kids from the X-Men school," Valeria gestured, smiling. Through the throng of mainly adults, Sofia could indeed see the blonde boy dressed similarly to his sister with an added conical party hat. He was surrounded by a miscellaneous group of characters who varied in everything from skin colour to number of limbs; members of the diverse group of mutants, supervised by Johnny Storm in his blue outfit. Sofia made her way through the chatting adults, followed by a curious Valeria.

"Sofia!" the boy cried out upon seeing her, waving as he did. Johnny Storm looked less impressed.

"Hello there Franklin, happy tenth birthday; welcome to double digits," she quipped, making her way over to the blond boy. She then handed him the wrapped cube from under her arm. He ooh'ed at the box, shaking it slightly to hear the weighty thump within.

"Why don't you open it bro, I kinda want to see what it is," Valeria encouraged him.

"What is it?" he asked up at the redhead.

"A cabbage," she deadpanned, trying not to laugh at his immediately crestfallen face.

"She's joking Franklin," Valeria informed him, shaking her head at the boy's gullibility.

"What is it really?" he asked again.

"Open it and find out," Sofia replied, smiling. The child needed little encouragement, pulling off the purple ribbon which made the box come apart to reveal its secret. He looked confused as he regarded the square-based pyramid made of beige stone, covered in runes. At each of the corners leading to the top, the pyramid shape jutted out to form flat side, giving it nine sides including the base.

"What is it?" he asked, examining the eclectic mix of language from Gaelic to Viking and a myriad of other things. Sofia in reply simply pressed her finger to the very top of the pyramid.

In response, some of the glyphs glowed and the peak of the pyramid fell away in four symmetrical pieces to reveal a dark blue glass sphere. The whole device then floated up above the box it had been contained in, the two parts separating in mid-air slightly as the sphere began to spin slowly. Every person in the close vicinity gave a gasp as the world around them suddenly turned black, everything apart from each other's bodies and the pyramid disappearing. Sudden fear turned to awe as eyes adjusted to make out pinpricks of light everywhere, and people twisted to look around.

"Whoa," commented Johnny, who looked like he was leaning against nothing. His sentiment was echoed by several others who looked confusedly either around or at the seats they could feel but not see.

"Franklin Richards," Sofia started, drawing attention back to her, "I give you, the Universe."

"Is that Earth?" Valeria asked from beside Sofia, pointing downwards towards a blue-green shape the size of a football.

"Yes, I felt it a good idea to start it from somewhere familiar so you can work your way outwards," she replied.

"This is so cool!" the boy exclaimed, getting up and looking around at all the stars. "How did you even do this?"

"A week's hard work. The gem at the top has a drop of water from Avalon in it, and the runes project a modified scrying spell; these are real time images. Of course it's an illusion being broadcast onto your brain, you're still standing exactly where you were, but this is the real Universe you're seeing," Sofia answered, smiling slightly with a hint of pride. "Come here and I'll show you how to adjust the image."

The boy moved over as she lightly stroked a finger along one of the flattened corners of the pyramid, each sigil glowing slightly before fading at her touch. As her finger moved, the stars around them spun slowly; rotating around them.

"Whoa," Franklin said, staring around at the moving light. He reached out a hand to touch the device when a loud voice distracted him.

"Franklin!" proclaimed the female voice, and running steps were heard before the Invisible Woman burst through the bubble of projection and stopped, looking around confusedly. "Oh," she said simply.

"Mrs Richards," Sofia acknowledged softly. "Hey Franklin, want to see something cool?"

"Sure," the boy said eagerly at her request.

"Look over there at that white star in the middle," she replied, pointing. "That is a star that went super-nova less than a month ago, but the light hasn't reached us from the explosion yet. However, if we move closer to it..." Sofia deftly touched a few runes on the pyramid, and the stars began whizzing past as they accelerated towards the single spot that steadily grew brighter, and brighter and larger as well. Sofia slowed their progression just as it reach a point of nearly being blinding, and then let it simply move in as they all watched the giant explosion happen, the star ballooning to massive proportions, fiery orange and yellow light spilling away in the Universe's greatest pyrotechnic light show. Franklin let out a slightly awed noise, echoed by several audience members who had gathered in the small space while Sofia wasn't looking. It ended abruptly as all the light was sucked back in on itself and a small dense spot formed, barely brighter than the dark depths of space around it.

"A neutron star," Valeria said, mostly to herself. Sofia nodded in agreement, and zoomed the group over to hover not far above the great hanging sphere that had a rumpled grey surface interspersed with bursts of red light like lava.

"Made of the densest material in the Universe," Sofia stated, finishing Valeria's statement.

"Not quite," said a male voice behind Sofia. She turned around to find Reed Richards stroking his chin as he regarded the star, "that would be a black hole."

"Touché Mr Richards," she conceded the point, since said anomalies were infinitely dense. Reaching out her hand once more, she touched the orb on top of the device, which made the scene ripple slightly like the surface of water before returning to hanging above Earth.

"Is this in real-time?" the man inquired, his stretchable neck allowing him to peer over at the pyramid.

"Yes, it's a method called scrying," she replied.

"This could have amazing defensive application…" Reed murmured to himself, making Sofia frown and press her finger to the orb once more, causing the image to disappear and the group to return to the rooftop.

"I would think it poor form to use your son's birthday gift in such a manner," she stated as the pyramid closed and hovered back down where it was caught by said ten year-old.

"I've had my mind on extra-terrestrial defence since the Skrull invasion," he replied, having the sense to at least appear a bit sheepish.

"Still, I'd appreciate it if the one beautiful thing I've ever made in my life remained just that instead of becoming yet another weapon," Sofia stated softly.

"You've designed weapons before?" Valeria asked, inferring from her statement.

Sofia was saved from answering the question that had levied a few looks upon her by a clapping from behind. Sofia turned to see a purple armoured man floating in the air performing the mocking gesture, accompanied by persons recognisable as the Sand-man, Electro, and Hydro-man.

"Well," the Wizard proclaimed, "if it interests Reed Richards; then that would seem good spoils for today's takings."

"C'mon, today? Really?" Johnny Storm asked, annoyed.

"Told ya we'd need the suits; you owe me five bucks," Ben Grimm said in return.

"They have a point," Sofia said, peering up at them and performing a few hand gestures that made her start levitating into the air to face the 'Frightful Four,' while tapping behind her ear to bring out her visor that she surreptitiously looked at the inactive speaker system through. "Speaking as the daughter of one of this world's foremost 'super villains,' this is just… oh what's the term?"

"A dick move?" Valeria suggested, floating up beside her on a transparent disk.

"Yes, that. And secondly, just a little bit thick; I honestly thought people in the modern age had more sense than this."

"Than to what? Attack a venue where there's a large gathering of superhumans?"

"Yes, one would think anyone with a sense of self-preservation wouldn't try anything today," Sofia grinned as her device finished hacking the hi-fi system during their mocking back-and-forth banter. "Kraddy – Android Porn," she enunciated clearly, giving a grin as the opening music filled the air.

The frightful four themselves looking decidedly confused at being brushed off so easily, looked as one down at the speakers sending musical notes into the air. Sofia and Valeria shared a brief look, the same twinkling glee present in sparkling eyes, and each girl leaped forward as the bass set in.

The Wizard's nose made a satisfying crack as it met Sofia's fist, causing the man to wheel away on his jetpack.

"Bitch," he muttered, fingering the blood running from his nasal passage.

"Not much of a wizard are you?" she commented, floating back a bit and raising her hands up, "shall I show you some real magic?"

She muttered a few words in Gaelic to send a blast of purple magic at the bearded man, pushing him back against the building's roof. She prepared to send another burst when Electro flew backwards through her line of sight, quickly followed by Valeria.

"Coming through," she quipped as she chased the electrified villain.

The brief respite gave Wizard enough time to get up, and he threw several blasts of energy through his gauntlets at Sofia while jetting into the air towards herself.

Not having much time, Sofia caught the man's armoured fist on her right vambrace, twisting it round to deflect to the right, and sending her own left fist to impact on his ribs. She brought her hands up in a defensive boxing pose against his retaliating right hook, but was unprepared for a power blast from some chest piece similar to Tony Stark's uni-beam.

The wind was knocked from her slightly as her back collided with the roof of the Baxter Building, her back plate protecting her from any physical damage though.

Wizard fired off another blast from a gauntlet at her, making her roll across the metal roof, pushing off with her hands while her chest was facing down to jump back to her feet. Murmuring words as she turned round to face her adversary she made a pulling gesture with her hands that made him fall from the air to land roughly onto one knee by where she stood.

Sofia stepped up towards him, aiming a right jab at him, pushing his head back with the force of her blow. He stumbled, trying to bring his arms up to retaliate but she pushed them to the side with her own, then launched a powerful kick to his abdomen which sent him staggering.

Configuring her fingers correctly and quickly saying a few words red circles enveloped Wizard's form, restricting his movements. Sofia gave a slight smirk at the crimson bands of Cyttorak that she had learnt to summon following her incarceration.

Turning around, she viewed the groups of people in and out of costume fighting the remaining members of the four.

Running over quickly, she jumped off the roof onto the balcony area, directly behind where Sandman, Mr Fantastic and Human Torch were engaged in a fight. Quickly accessing the situation, she drew her dagger and slit along the silvery scar on her left palm, once more releasing her lifeblood. Chanting, symbols began to appear in several rotating circles that quickly began to form around a sphere shape.

"What the hell?" Sandman remarked, having turned around to see her sphere of magical energies coalesced. She grinned as the glyphs finished and her words switched to maintaining the now growing typhoon of wind around the small area.

Wind whipped around them four of them, Sofia's cowl being moved back in the alternately pushing and pulling winds that were making her long crimson hair go crazy. Sandman was stretching up and trying to get away from the ball that was sucking in particles of sand from his body, but was confronted by Johnny Storm, flying up and throwing fire at him to push him back.

With an inarticulate cry of rage, his sandy mass was slowly sucked into the vortex and contained in a shifting beige mass within the spinning glyphs.

Sofia kept up the spell, waiting until she was sure that the entire villain was contained within her sphere before stepping away, still chanting as her eyes glowed a light purple, pulling the captured man as she sought out the Invisible Woman.

Seeing the two final members of the frightful four already captive, she approached the blonde woman and gave her a look and gestured with her head at the suspended Sandman who was swiftly encompassed in a layer of transparency.

Lowering her arms, Sofia let the spell fade, ending the violet energy that had encompassed her hands and eyes. Suddenly feeling the wave of lethargy that came with using blood magic she rested her hands on her knees, breathing deeply.

"I'll confess to having never seen magic like that before," someone remarked over to Sofia's right. She looked up to see Stephen Strange in a long trench coat.

"Fae," she replied, straightening up again while stretching some muscles in her back.

"I thought they were extinct?" he said curiously.

"No, just few places left on Earth they can still appear in and their numbers have dwindled," Sofia responded absent-mindedly, looking around for Valeria.

"Hey, that purple eyes thing was badass," the blonde said from behind Sofia, making her turn around to meet her smirking face.

"Can't really help it when I channel magic," she replied. Valeria looked around at the minor destruction of chairs and a few tables, as well as the four people being carted away by the Fantastic Four.

"Well. This went well," she commented, to which Sofia only laughed.

"I thought the entertainment was rather fun personally," she replied, bringing a corresponding laugh from the blonde teen.

"Say," Valeria started, "Shrek 2 is nearly as good as the first one you know."

"Sounds like a plan."

The pair turned in sync and walked into the doorway of the building in search of comedic ogres and some form of ice cream.

#############################################################################################

Sofia groaned as light bombarded her addled brain, forcing her eyelids open as her body protested against waking up. Tearing slightly as they adjusted, her violet eyes picked out a blonde woman in a blue uniform standing with her hand on hip before her.

"Valeria, did you stay up all night?" she questioned, the seemingly loud words echoing in Sofia's head where a pronounced ache was forming.

"Err," muttered a feminine voice from beside her, "maybe?" Sofia tried to turn her head and look at the source only to find her face filled with golden locks of hair. Finally being dragged fully from the realm of Morpheus she realised that her body was draped against that of Valeria Richards; whose head was leaning on Sofia's shoulder while her own head was on top of Valeria's. She took in the messed up bed they were laying on top of, the computer that was displaying an ended media file requesting to be played again, and the window beyond that was the cause of all the harsh light.

"And did you eat all this ice cream?" Susan Richards inquired, holding up an empty tub that used to contain raspberry ripple and instead now had two spoons and nothing else.

"Err, maybe?" Sofia answered, annoyed at how weak her voice sounded.

"Well," the woman began, staring down at the two bleary eyed teens, "Valeria, you have lessons this morning, and I'm sure Sofia needs to be getting home. You've just about got time to have a shower before we go and meet Hank if you hurry." She left after saying her piece, leaving the pair to make their way off the bed.

"Hank Pym?" Sofia inquired curiously as she stretched her limbs a bit to get the life back into them.

"Yep," Valeria answered while stretching similarly, "biology lessons. How many movies did we make it through last night?"

"I think we were halfway through WALL-E when we fell asleep."

"Speak for yourself; I think I conked out in the first ten minutes."

"Lightweight." They shared a chuckle for a moment as they finished stretching.

"You around later? I think it's time for number three on the list."

"And what's that?"

"Shopping. I haven't seen you out of that exact outfit yet, and it's all fine for fighting in, not so much for just everyday use."

She pouted at her friend, causing the blonde to laugh while turning around and simultaneously pulling off her shirt. Sofia's eyes were glued to freshly exposed creamy skin of her back as the teen stepped through the bathroom door. Sofia flushed slightly as she realised she'd been looking over her new friend in such a manner, and how her heart had seemed to miss a beat.

Chalking it up to mere surprise, she incanted the spell that set violet energy to surround her form, teleporting her back to the dark Castle Doom.

 **A/N: Maybe I'm moving a bit quickly, idk, but setting up stuff for future, I'm just not a very good writer and subtlety is not my forte.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Three Months Later

Sofia looked down at Valeria over the top of a pair of sunglasses while said friend pouted in that adorable manner she was capable of adopting.

"No," she stated clearly.

"Oh c'mon, I've been begging you for three months now," Valeria insisted.

"And I've said no every time you've asked; I happen to like my armour and my cowl."

"You're just afraid you'll enjoy the modern love of women that is shopping. You don't even have to wear anything we buy ever again."

"Then what's the point in buying it?"

"For the fun, the event of doing it, and I didn't say you _should_ never wear the clothes again, just that you _can_."

Sofia simply shook her head slightly while a chuckle loosed past her lips, turning to lean over the balcony at the sunny skyline of New York.

"Why won't you just trust me? I mean we're on number, what? Thirty eight now?"

"That ACDC concert was thirty eight," Sofia replied, smiling at the memory.

"And it was awesome. C'mon, we can't keep moving on without having done number three, leaving such a fundamental box un-ticked."

"Alright, alright," Sofia said, raising her hands up in defeat, "I give in." The blonde girl squealed in response, giving the redhead a quick squeezing hug.

"Oh my god this is gonna be so fun, though we probably can't go into any shops in NYC since looking like that, they'd probably throw you out or call the police for being armed or something."

"Back to Latveria then," Sofia replied, reaching up to around her neck where a leather rope supported a small rough needle shaped piece of silvery metal engraved with tiny Viking runes. About to mutter the few words required to the counterpart hanging in her bedroom since she made the foci-honestly it reduced the time taken to say the spell and made focusing on the location so much easier-when she remembered what was in a pouch on her belt. "I nearly forgot about this actually."

Fishing her hand into the leather pouch, she withdrew a necklace similar to her own; the sliver of mithril being only slightly different shape.

"Is that a focus like the one around your neck?" Valeria inquired, examining the jewellery.

"Yes, made from a small piece of refined mithril, I finished carving the sigils last night. Added a little extra one for you," she replied, reaching over to hook the leather rope around her friend's bowed head. "The one inked in in black corresponds to warm up my own; basically it will let you summon me over if, well, I don't know you need my help or are in danger or something," she blushed slightly as she said the last part, unable to categorise the fear she felt for her blonde counterpart.

"Thanks!" Valeria replied enthusiastically, grasping the piece of shiny metal in a hand before throwing her arms around Sofia in another warm embrace, which she gladly leaned into. Sofia froze however as soft lips pressed to her own in a light kiss, leaning in with glorious pressure. The contact was gone almost as soon as it had begun, with Valeria leaping backwards away with a look of shock and a very red face. Sofia only swayed on the spot slightly, struck dumb by her first ever kiss. Her mind wandered slightly to a recent conversation with her father.

#############################################################################################

" _Father?" Sofia asked hesitantly as the pair peered over the workings of a torn-apart machine the size of a pickup truck, tools in hand._

" _Yes?" he replied while deftly unscrewing the plate that had a 'Danger of Death' warning in French._

" _I've begun to worry about certain…impulses I've been having, and feelings," she gushed out while she still had the courage. She tried to concentrate on removing some wires from a hard drive while her father remained silent for what felt like a long time but in reality was probably only a minute or so._

" _Would this have anything to do with the time you've been spending with Miss. Richards?"_

" _Yes. The internet has been largely unhelpful at being able to determine symptoms of what might be real…or attributed to puberty." Sofia flushed at discussing this with a man that while was her father, did not exactly fit the traditional parental role, notable in the fact that they were taking apart a device recovered from the French secret service together._

" _Sofia," said her father from behind her, causing the teen to jump, and turn to see the man now standing behind her. "What are your feelings towards her?"_

" _I don't know. I like her, and I think I may_ like _her. When I'm around her I feel carefree, and happy, and I never want those moments to end," she replied, idly fiddling with her spanner, glancing up at the stoic man as he lapsed into one of his signature silences._

" _Doom may be an expert in matters of science and magic, but in this I am…slightly less knowledgeable," he admitted. "I think the girl is intelligent, and naturally predisposed towards closeness with those she likes, and not caring overly for those she does not."_

" _But what do you think about…" Sofia trailed off, unable to put it into words._

" _I think she is a fine match, and if it brings you happiness, I will support you as my daughter. However, I would give you a word of warning before embarking upon this; I have not stopped you forming a friendship-I trust to leave you your autonomy-but you must be aware you still sit on 'opposite sides of the fence,' as it were. I might feel inclined to compare the situation to Romeo and Juliet."_

" _Please don't," Sofia responded, feeling a weight settle in her stomach, "they both ended up dead."_

" _Still, you will likely find opposition to it from her family and such due to your relation to me, and our incarceration," the man turned and walked back over to his section of the machine, having said his piece, pausing only once to remark: "Know that I will support you, no matter what you choose."_

" _Thank you father," Sofia muttered in response before busying herself back into French electronics._

#############################################################################################

Snapping back into present time from the memory, Sofia's mind was still trying to piece itself back together.

"So, uh, shopping!" said Valeria, trying unsuccessfully to lift the reddened look from her cheeks.

"Shopping, yes," replied Sofia airily, still not quite comprehending what had happened.

"Let's go!" Valeria said, entwining her arm with Sofia's. Mechanically the redhead reached her hand up to grasp her necklace and intoned the necessary words in a dull voice.

As the purple magic swept around them before disappearing to reveal Sofia's balcony, her mind was just about reasserting itself to think about the fact that Valeria, actual real Valeria had kissed her. Her recovery was enough that she quickly caught the blonde, pulling her into her side and twisting downwards to drop below the large arrow that swiftly buried itself in the stonework above her glass doors.

Mind now fully alert, Sofia peered over the edge of the balcony, looking down over the snowy landscape and freezing as she regarded the Asgardian forces advancing through the city of Doomstadt to storm the castle gates.

"Are those Asgardians?" Valeria inquired from her position similarly gazing over the balcony.

"Yes," Sofia breathed, trying to count the numbers, assess their weaponry.

"What're they doing here?" Sofia did not reply to the question, instead thinking over the countless ways in which the blonde could now considered to be in danger by being with her; the daughter of Doom.

"Val, I need you to stay here, in my rooms. Stay safe." With her whispered plea, Sofia jumped over the edge of the stone, plummeting downwards and slowing with only a quick whispered spell. She readied her stance as a number of nearby Asgardians with golden armour and spears turned to her.

"Oh like hell," came a female voice from above, and dread settled in Sofia's stomach as Valeria drifted down to stand at her side, disobeying her wish. She had no time to voice her opposition though as the men charged towards them.

The pair moved to stand back-to-back as the first soldier approached Sofia, and she deflected the stab of his spear with her left vambrace while blasting him in the stomach with purple magic from her right hand. The man recovered almost immediately, swinging his spear back around with the force of two hands.

Sofia grabbed the pole near the end, and pulled while her other hand came up once more and made an obscure gesture with her fingers while she incited the correct words. She pulled the golden weapon from the soldier's hands as he was enveloped by the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak; a spell she seemed to be using more and more often.

Sofia brought the hefty weapon around to the left to guard from an incoming attack from another gilded soldier, catching his spear blade on her staff. She spun the weapon back around, straining her not inconsiderable muscles to bring the butt around the Asgardian's shoulder, sliding him away to the right where he was pushed into the air by a blast of transparent power from her blonde counterpart.

She had no time to thank the girl though as two more men approached. One was another nameless soldier, but the other's weighty girth was recognisable as a member of the Warriors Three; Volstagg. She did not let his size fool her into believing him any less formidable than the stories of old said, seeing the ease with which he brought his two-handed sword up.

Sofia backed up slightly as the pair approached, twirling her spear in both hands to defend against attacks from both foes. She stopped when her back foot touched Valeria's, holding her ground rather than disrupting the blonde's position which would end badly for both of them. The pair she was fighting saw her hesitation and lack of room for movement, Volstagg circling left while the other moved right.

The soldier struck first, his golden staff sweeping in low and forcing Sofia to twist her own weapon down and to the right to defend against the blow. While twisting right, she knew she'd left her other side open for attack, and was already muttering words to attack the fat man who was doubtless leaning in to her side. However her words faltered as she turned to instead see his sword dropping further away from her towards Valeria's unprotected back.

"Valeria!" she shouted, dropping her spear to leap forward and pushed the blonde away from the impacting weapon.

Sofia gave a scream of pure, unadulterated agony as she felt a cutting sensation on her right shoulder. She barely felt the white snow as she impacted down into it, only feeling the white hot pain that was ripping through her being in a way she had never previously known.

"Sofia!" a voice called through the muddied water that was her brain. She couldn't focus on anything as her sight became bleary with wet tears, and if anything her pain seemed to get worse, spreading outwards from her arm into her chest, centring on her heart with a burning feeling. "Sofia," the voice called again, though the redhead could only hear it as a whisper while her world faded to black.

#############################################################################################

Waking was an unpleasant sensation. Sofia's eyes slowly cracked open against the aches that pervaded her form; seemingly from everywhere, but strongest in her right shoulder which felt decidedly odd.

Her ears became aware of a light beeping in background noise, and her bleary eyes found the heart-rate monitor with its steadily progressive green line. Fully awake now, she became aware of the white sheets and strange bed she was lying in, the tubes and needles poked into her visible left arm, and the slight hand wrapped around her own. A familiar blonde was connected to the hand, her hair splayed across Sofia's lower body as she rested her head on her lap, silently sleeping. Sofia rubbed the soft fingers lightly, staring over the soft face of the girl in her slumber.

"She has barely left your side in three days," stated a voice from her right, and her head twisted to see her father standing by numerous machines she vaguely recognised as medical equipment.

"Three days?" she croaked with her voice hoarse and lips dry. "What happened? There were Asgardians…."

"You blacked out," he replied, and seemed as if he was going to say more but shifted awkwardly.

Sofia's eyes narrowed at the man, who was never someone to look awkward except when she had approached him about Valeria. Running back through her fuzzy memories, she retraced steps to pushing the blonde away and feeling a great tearing pain in her right shoulder. Looking down she saw a bandage wrapped around her collarbone. Since her left hand was still encased in Valeria's, she reached out her right hand to touch the white fabric. Though she felt the command and a twitch, there was no movement from her limb. Moving her gaze over she again tried to move her arm, her brain calculating on why it wasn't moving.

And then she recognised the empty space beside her torso, and her mind caught up. She leant her head back to hit against the headboard as she came to realise what had happened.

"My arm," she all but whispered.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't save it," Doom said quietly and surprisingly softly for the man, regret even evident in his voice. "You'd lost a lot of blood when Valeria found me, and the iron was poisoning you, I couldn't do any more."

Sofia simply stared lifelessly up at a stone ceiling, considering everything that was now lost to her. While most her blood magic and summoning did not require hand gestures, she had now lost access to that which did. She wrote with her right hand, and she favoured it while typing, and grasping and generally anything with her right hand. And it was now gone. She felt a phantom twitch in her missing limb that reminded her of the sensation lost.

"Why?" she asked in a quiet voice, "why were they attacking?"

"They discovered what I was doing," Doom replied, and Sofia tipped her head back down to see him pacing. "I deliberately kept the nature of why I invited their people here from you, I felt you would disapprove."

"Why?" she rasped again. The man paused in his steps, staring at a section of wall.

"I was dissecting them," he admitted quietly, "trying to learn the secret of their longevity."

"You seek immortality," Sofia stated, seeing why he thought she would disapprove.

"It infuriated me, that even the most common of Asgardians could live for a thousand years, and to accomplish what? To drink and fight meaningless battles; while I, Victor von Doom was still constrained by my mortality, for all my intelligence and power I am still doomed to die before my work is ever complete," he looked over at her prone form. "It is my fault, my hubris that has done this."

"Your lust for power." The man stayed silent, not denying the point.

"When I took you on; I was considering how long it would be until you betrayed me, as everyone ever has. I did not let myself enjoy teaching you early on, instead seeing it as a chore, an experiment to see how long it would last. It was not until later, as you followed my every word I allowed myself to believe you, to think of you as my child. And now it is I who has failed you as my ward." Sofia looked strangely at the man who was admitting to his failings, the great Victor von Doom who stood unmoved at all things for however many years before her arrival. Even as being with Valeria had changed her, she herself had changed him greatly.

"You saved her life," a small voice said from down the bed, causing the pair to look at Valeria. "That has to count for something. Not that I'm forgiving you Uncle Doom, that'll take some work."

The blonde lifted her head, and turned to look at Sofia. Her heart burnt at the girl's bloodshot eyes, red from crying. Even as she watched, another tear trailed its path down her cheek.

"Don't shed your tears for me," Sofia said softly, bring her closer with her left hand. Valeria reached over and tenderly wrapped her hands around the redhead, clutching her as tight as she dared.

"I was so scared," she whispered, choking up slightly. "You were so pale and there was so much blood."

"Shush Val, it's alright," she replied, wrapping her own arm around the slender blonde.

From her place where she was looking over the teen's shoulder, she saw Doom moving to leave the room, turning his head to stare back at her.

"Anything I can do," he said quietly, "I will give to you, and it will be understandable if you wish to leave or-."

"No, I'm not leaving." she cut him off, looking her father straight in his silvery mask, composed of so many different elements she knew and more she didn't. The man bowed his head slightly, acquiescing to her statement and made to leave once more. "There's something you can get me though, to start with at least."

"What?"

"Uru. I need Uru."

Two weeks later

Sofia craned her neck in the dark room, illuminated only by the various monitor screens bathing her in artificial light. A spindly, skeletal metal hand stretched out from under the dark cloak she wore, controlled by a band around her head, to tap the keyboard running another simulation.

She recoiled and jumped up as the room was suddenly filled with light, purple magic gathering around her outstretched left hand. Her fearful eyes were calmed when she saw who was in the doorway with a hand on the light switch.

"You're jumpy," Valeria stated, "When did you last sleep?"

"I can't sleep properly," Sofia said quietly.

"I know; it's why your dad brought me over." The blonde walked over and embraced Sofia, who leaned into the warm girl. "You don't have to do this alone you know, I'm here for you."

"I know, I did notice when your parents had to drag you away," she quipped in return, running a hand through golden locks of hair.

"Then why won't you let me in?" Empathic blue eyes stared into bloodshot purple. "Why are you doing this to yourself? You need the rest and yet Doom says you've barely left your lab."

"You don't understand Val…"

"Then make me." Sofia stared at the beautiful girl, creamy skin framing those electric blue eyes, soft lips and petite nose. She sighed, and dropped her head slightly, acquiescing.

"Doom isn't the one who failed; I did," she replied quietly.

"What?"

"It was my fault; I brought you here, it's because you're friends with me you were in the situation."

"Sofia," she enunciated clearly, "you saved my life; that sword was meant for me."

"I put it in danger in the first place; I moved to the right and I left you unprotected…I'm the one who caused you to nearly die. And I was barely able to save you."

"This is why you've been doing this? Because you blame yourself?"

"I messed up; I need to be stronger next time, better. I know you're better without me but I'm too selfish to let you go." Sofia clasped her hands to Valeria's face; one flesh and one spiny metal. "I can't lose you Val."

With that proclamation the redhead leaned in and captured those soft lips, crashing together in a passionate kiss. After a few sweet seconds she withdrew, flushing as she tried to look anywhere but at Valeria.

The blonde in question grabbed Sofia's chin in a hand, stilling her and forcing their gazes to meet. It was the first time Sofia had initiated a kiss in her life, and only the second kiss of her life, and the pair had never discussed what they shared on the top floor of the Baxter Building. With deliberate slowness, Valeria smiled and leaned down to once more press their lips together.

This kiss was softer and lasted longer, giving their lips time to move against each other creating glorious friction. When the blonde pulled away, it was with lidded eyes and a satisfied smile. She moved away from their closeness and held out her right hand to Sofia, wiggling the fingers.

"C'mon, let's go to bed," she said. Sofia looked at her and gaped like a goldfish at her statement, and after a moment Valeria flushed, realising the double entendre. "Not like that, not yet anyway." Another blush. "You need your sleep, so I'm making sure you stay in bed rather than coming back down here again."

Sofia hesitantly took the proffered hand, and allowed herself to be pulled away from her computer and towards the heralded place of rest.

#############################################################################################

"I don't want you here to watch this," Sofia protested as Valeria paced in the stone room, trying not to look at the various pieces of surgical equipment.

"Sofia, I know you're going to be in pain and I want to help you through it."

"I just don't want you to see me like this; you've already sat by my bedside once."

"And I'll gladly do it again," she replied firmly, and the redhead threw her hand up in surrender, having removed the primitive mechanical replacement for the upcoming surgery. "I still don't understand why you have to be awake for this though," the blonde remarked, staring at the two things sitting on the table.

One was an odd web of thin white tubing, twisted into strange shapes and looping back on itself. The flexible tubes got progressively smaller the further they were from the openings at one end.

The second object was more recognizably a hollow arm, styled after Sofia's original and made of a mix of black and dark grey mixed metal, interspersed with flecks of silver and three black channels lined in silver that travelled from between each knuckle of the fingers up to the shoulder where they formed harsh spikes.

Valeria lightly stroked the odd metal composite, brushing over the depicted musculature reflecting light in odd angles.

"What did you say this was made of again?" the blonde questioned.

"A mix of adamantium-," she started.

"Like Wolverine's bones."

"Vibranium."

"Like Cap's shield."

"Uru."

"Like Thor's hammer."

"And mithril."

"Like your armour, and is some kind of magical metal. How did you even get those to alloy properly?" Valeria's scientific mind found the thing fascinating.

"With no small amount of magic and four weeks hard work. What I was working on during my insomnia periods."

"And theoretically the ridiculous number of runes, glyphs and sigils on the inside plus your blood circulating around it will make it act like a real arm, and make your magic work properly with it."

"Essentially yes, as well as being stronger, and having a little hidden surprise." She had removed the hilt from her old faithful dagger and implanted the blade to come out from the underside of the wrist, otherwise hidden from view.

"Okay, I get all that, but why are you having to be conscious when it's fitted?" Sofia caught the blonde as she asked the question, and pulled their bodies flush together to wrap a hug around the teen.

"Because my magic needs to 'bond' with it essentially, and it's best if I'm awake to speed along the process and under as little anaesthetic as possible so my mind is clear. I would hate to have got this far and achieved as much with just building the thing for it to reject me at the last hurdle."

"What do you mean by reject you?"

"Magic is weird like that; like how only someone worthy can wield Thor's hammer, it's commonly thought to be sentient."

"And if it rejects you?"

"We pull it off and try again tomorrow," Sofia lied, considering if it actually went wrong the blood runes within were more likely to backfire and explode, but the chances of it happening were minimal. She was the one who had crafted the thing, forged it, and wielded the magics that went into its creation. Her specific magical 'signature' was already ingrained in the metal; she just needed to reinforce it.

Her father chose this moment to walk into the room, stopping as he looked at their embrace.

"Are you ready to begin?" he inquired. Sofia looked down at her slightly shorter counterpart, who turned to face Doom.

"We're ready," Valeria said quietly. The man nodded, and stepped over to the computer, firing it up and loading the programs Sofia had written. Valeria reached her hands under the white shirt the redhead was wearing and pulled it up over her head, leaving the woman in only a bra and a pair of shorts loaned from Valeria herself.

Sofia turned and stepped over to the operation table that was inclined at forty five degrees to the floor. She stepped up onto it, and laid down whereupon Valeria tied the straps first around her arm, then her stomach and head, and finally her legs. As Sofia looked up at the various sharp instruments hanging above the machine on mechanical arms, she tried not to think about the last occupant of the device; a dying Asgardian.

She was brought from her thoughts by soft hands on the interior of her elbow, and she looked over to Valeria as a needle poked through her skin to administer a measured amount of anaesthetic; just enough to stop her from passing out from the pain. The blonde removed the needle once its job was done, and stabbed a monitoring device in its place. Sofia only felt a slight jab as the drugs already began their quick work upon her body.

She made an effort to smile at Valeria as she hesitantly brought a rubber shape to her mouth, pushing it in to stop her teeth from biting her tongue. Her lover disappeared from sight for a moment before the scraping of a chair on the stone floor was heard, and a pair of hands enclosed Sofia's own.

"I'm here with you, okay?" the soft voice said, giving her hand a squeeze.

"The anaesthetic has taken effect," Doom stated from where he stood, "beginning the procedure."

One of the many metal arms reached down and pulled away the circular metal that rested over the stump where her arm used to join the shoulder. Sofia clamped down on the rubber in her mouth when the blade swept down to remove the scabby attempt at healing her body had tried on the area, creating a clean spot for the procedure to begin in earnest.

Sofia's heart-rate rose as various drills and blades descended from above to move over to her arm that was weeping blood. She screamed into her gag and tried to arch her back in pain against the strap as the work began; digging into the flesh to recreate the sealed over arteries and veins and newer paths as well. Tears leaked over Sofia's face as the work continued for she knew not how long, her only comfort the soft warmth provided by Valeria's hands. She saw the tubing she had designed being carried over and felt relief at the physical work nearing its final stages. She gave one more muffled cry of pain as the tubes were rammed into their places all at once, seeing the flashback of blood up the tubes and understanding it meant success.

The mechanical arms lowered the tubing slightly, and brought it to meet the interior of the new arm. They were slotted inside, bringing the end closer to the flesh of her shoulder, and she could see the dozens upon dozens of runes inside beginning to glow a light purple at her presence. She gave one final cry of pain; eyes squeezed shut as the metal spikes on the end of the arm embedded in specified places in her flesh, digging in.

A purple aura began to surround the black metal as the runes activated on meeting her blood, and she felt it with her mind as energy gathered around it. She latched her will onto the object, forcing, begging it to work, to recognise her. After a final pulse of energy, she felt it give in and flow to her will, and the purple aura faded as the black fist clenched.

Sofia moved against the pain at her shoulder that was still aching, and brought the arm up to look at it as she would her normal arm. To her delight, the metal appendage did as ordered, moving up by her eyes. She studied the shiny surface flecked with slivers of silvery mithril even as a pulse of purple light travelled in sync down the three channels to her knuckles, signifying that her bodily magic had accepted it as it had her. It would cycle magic through those channels every minute of every day, creating that same pulsing effect.

Twisting her new right hand down she pulled the rubber gag from her mouth, stretching her jaw now that she lacked the protrusion.

"It worked," both she and Valeria said at the same time, the first triumphantly and the latter surprised.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing," Sofia continued in her best Darth Vader impression as the blonde undid the straps holding her down, making her chuckle.

"I suppose you're the magical equivalent of a cyborg now so you get to make jokes like that," she replied. Once the last strap was removed from her forehead, Sofia moved forward and pulled Valeria down with her new hand and pressed their lips together in a soft kiss.

"Thank you," she stated after separating, "for being there."

Sofia then stepped away from the operating table, and over to her father whose hands were already glowing with orange magic. As he cast the healing spells, she felt herself relax as the last of the pain faded to a dull ache. The man nodded to her, and left the pair alone.

When Sofia turned around, she was immediately wrapped within Valeria's arms as the teen stroked her new black arm.

"Are you happy now you've got your nice new arm?" the girl inquired innocently.

"Very, at least for the moment; although it might have something to do with the beautiful woman in my arms," she replied, making Valeria giggle.

"Good, because that means it's time for you to fulfil a promise," the girl continued in that same faux-innocent voice that made Sofia regard her suspiciously. "It's time to go shopping!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sofia laughed as she and Valeria stepped out of a swirling of purple magic carrying numerous bags and boxes covered in brand names and labels.

The pair were dressed similarly, just in differing colours. Sofia was garbed in a long black trench coat, a dark green turtleneck and slim black jeans with a pair of slightly punk-like black boots. Valeria had gone for a very dark blue trench coat, matching jeans, a white T-shirt depicting some band Sofia had never heard of, and a pair of blue converses. They both wore a pair of reflective aviators; Sofia's purple and Valeria's blue.

Valeria dumped her haul down on her bed, while Sofia put her own in a pile near the door for when she left.

"Now look me in the eye and tell me that wasn't fun?" Valeria teased.

"Yes, O' my wise and mighty guide to the century number twenty-one," Sofia intoned before the pair broke own in giggles before sharing a quick kiss. "Hey, there's something I need to do while I'm here, do you mind if I go and do it?"

"Sure, I'll be sticking all those lovely gifts from you into my wardrobe, or I should say from your dad's credit card. Oh, and be warned, you might get mixed reactions from my family."

"What's the forecast?"

"Dad appreciates you saving my life, but dislikes I was there in the first place, Mom's kinda ape shit about me being in a firefight again, and doesn't like that I refused to leave your bedside when you were unconscious."

"Oh yes, father said they tried to get you to leave and you pushed them out of the room with force-fields." Valeria blushed at the comment before continuing:

"Ben doesn't like your father, but thinks you're alright if you took a sword for me, and Johnny's undecided. And Franklin of course thinks you're awesome since that birthday present. What is it you want to do anyway?"

"Have a chat with your father," Sofia answered, her face setting in a rather more solemn position. She didn't give the blonde time to answer, instead opening the bedroom door and stepping out into the corridors of the Baxter Building before realising she had no idea where she could find Reed Richards. Following instinct, she moved down the corridor into the open plan living space next to the balcony area, where Johnny Storm was reclined in casual clothes with a Porsche magazine.

"Uh, hey, do you know where Mr. Richards is?" she inquired.

"Downstairs one floor, it's all one laboratory, Reed will be in there," he replied without looking up.

"Thanks," she said in return, and walked over to an out of the way staircase behind the sofa. Stepping down and around a curve in the stairs she raised an eyebrow upon entering the lab. Johnny had not been exaggerating and the large room spanned the entire floor of the building with white surfaces and miscellaneous scientific apparatus haphazardly everywhere. She noticed a stretched blue uniform with a top body covered in a lab coat sticking out what looked decidedly like the remains of a spaceship.

"Mr. Richards?" she called over, stepping off the staircase. A head popped up on an extended neck from the other side of the machine while the body remained stationary, which was slightly disconcerting.

"Oh, hello there," he said, his body parts contracting until he was more of a normal size and walked over towards her, lab coat flapping behind him. "It's nice to see you, and please, call me Reed." As he strolled up to her, his hand stretched out and she shook it firmly. He looked interestingly at her black metal hand, noting the purple glow that flashed to her knuckles. "I heard about your…injury, I appreciate what you did for Valeria."

"I'd do it a thousand times again in a heartbeat," Sofia replied.

"I also thought it wouldn't take you long to sort out some prosthetic alternative with a mind likes yours; is that vibranium?"

"Among other things, it's an alloy of multiple metals since I have to avoid iron."

"You made a successful vibranium alloy?" he asked, surprised, "I thought that hadn't been achieved since Howard Stark made Captain America's shield."

"Well, few people have had magic on their side as well as a few materials that enchant easily to merge it with."

"May I ask which you used?"

"Apart from vibranium, it contains adamantium, Uru and mithril." If Reed had been surprised before, his eyebrows now appeared to be trying to disappear into his hair.

"That's…quite a mixture, and I've never even heard of mithril outside of mythology; what mechanisms even allow it to move?"

"No mechanics, this one's pure magic, and it would take more than a decade of training before I could get you to understand how it functions. However scientific and magical developments, while interesting, are not why I wanted to talk to you," Sofia stated, leaning back against a table.

"Of course, what was it you wanted to say?"

"First I would want you to know I was born in the sixth century AD, where this was more tradition in case you find my doing this old-fashioned, and I believe that to be true and a mere formality, but encourages understanding of certain things and a better relationship with family."

"Right," Reed replied, a serious look adorning his features. Sofia decided to be blunt rather than anything else, feeling the man would prefer a direct approach.

"I would like your blessing to pursue your daughter," Sofia let the sentence hang in the air, giving the man time to process the words. Richards for his part did not seem too shocked, merely retaining his serious face.

"I've actually been giving this some thought following the time you've spent with Valeria," he started, "in fact you've just won me a bet I made with my wife when we tried to get her to come home four weeks ago."

Sofia snorted in amusement, allowing a small smile to grace her lips.

"May I ask how long you've been together?"

"We kissed for the first time about five minutes before teleporting into a Castle Doom that was under attack. We've been exploring feelings since then; near death puts a few things in perspective."

"And have you, ah…" Reed let the question hang in the air, and made Sofia blush once she realised the gist of it.

"No, no. Although we have slept in the same bed; she's been helping me with some…insomnia issues following the attack."

"Hence the sleepovers recently, and forgive me, as a father I had to ask."

"Reed," a voice shouted from behind Sofia, distracting the pair. "Have you seen Valeria today?" Susan Richards continued as she walked down the steps, pausing when she saw the redhead.

"She's upstairs unpacking the clothes she bought," Sofia answered instead.

"So she finally got you to go shopping?" Reed stated, chuckling a bit.

"Hence the new wardrobe," she replied, running a finger down her new trench coat. Perhaps there was _something_ to be said for new age fashion. "I should probably go up and say goodbye to Val before going home. Err, Mr. Richards, do you mind?" she gestured in his wife's direction, and he nodded understandingly.

"I'll explain to her, and please, like I said; call me Reed."

Sofia smiled and strode past a confused Susan to walk back upstairs.

#############################################################################################

"You did what?"

"I asked for his blessing to pursue a relationship with you," Sofia stated calmly as she watched the blonde pacing and making gestures with her hands.

"I know you were born a long time ago, but the father is not the one who decides who his daughter will be with."

"I didn't ask him to give you to me as used to be custom Val, I asked for his approval and declared my intent. I'd be continuing to be with you regardless of what he said anyway."

"Okay," the teen said, and stopped pacing, "but I still feel it's so early, this all happened so fast, and then your arm… I mean what even are we? Girlfriends? Lovers? I've never been attracted to a woman before, or been in a relationship and all this is just so-."

Sofia interrupted the panicking by stepping over and pressing their lips together softly, which Valeria immediately leaned into, pushing into contact as their bodies moved closer together.

"That," stated Valeria, pulling away, "is what matters. That feeling; the rest of the world can all go hang itself as far as I'm concerned. Don't worry yourself over these things; we have all the time in the world to sort it out."

"Thanks, I guess I needed to hear that," Valeria stated, hugging her redhead close to her.

"Although," Sofia added, nuzzling into golden hair, "I do like the idea of getting to call you my girlfriend."

"Mm, I do like the idea of that I think," Valeria replied.

"Well," Sofia said, softly breaking the embrace and moving over to her pile of purchases, "you'll be happy to use that term when Reed finishes telling your mother what I told him."

"Shit," she said simply, dawning on her that said woman would likely be bursting into the room any moment. "Can't you stay and help me with this?"

"I would, but father sent me a message about something urgent earlier and I've already delayed enough by shopping. Besides, you're more than capable of handling your own mother, and I think it would be best if I were not around so she will speak freely."

"Coward."

Sofia laughed before murmuring the words to disappear into purple light.

#############################################################################################

"You wanted to talk father?" Sofia said as she walked into what she dubbed the 'war room.' Her father was viewing multiple screens displaying several different things from governments to Osborn's Avengers team.

"Events have escalated of late," he replied without turning around.

"Is our prediction of Osborn's regime falling apart coming true?"

"Among over things; public view is deteriorating with the recent Blackguard scandal, as well as released footage of Osborn torturing a man."

"Did the modified Doombot work as intended?"

"Perfectly; they evacuated the building and the Sentry was required to stop them."

"I worry about that man; he's a dangerous loose cannon with serious mental issues, and seemingly can't be killed."

"Agreed. However Osborn's pitiful attempt at being a king is not why I called you here."

"Why then?"

"Yesterday I was approached by Dracula about a non-aggression pact while he sought to invade Britain." Sofia stayed very quiet at the announcement, considering the pale skinned neighbours of Latveria.

"I would personally trust the cold hearted bastard even less than Osborn; his people have always looked too interested at the borders of Latveria."

"Indeed; however the question is what to do." It was at this point Sofia realised he was genuinely trying to include her in his decision making, which considering Doom was notorious for not playing well with others marked some kind of occasion at least.

"I think," she said slowly, "that the world is on the brink of changing and that we have a chance to be a part of it and influence the making of a new status quo."

"How do you suggest we go about it?"

"I think it's time for Latveria to not be some small country in Eastern Europe and to join the world stage; and that starts with making allies. A debt is worth a lot to certain people, and perhaps along the way we may gain other things as well."

"What do you think we should do in this situation with Dracula then?"

"Make a phone call."

#############################################################################################

"Look, I don't care about bloody appointments and you trying to fob me off," Sofia stated clearly, trying not to get angry at the obstinate woman she was arguing with. "Just tell the man that a foreign dignitary would like to talk to him about a matter of national security."

"Putting you on hold," she replied, and Sofia had to restrain herself from tearing off the device curled around her ear as annoying soft jazz filled her ear. After a long minute which she spent thinking up a few choice words to describe the secretary, the music clicked off and the call resumed.

"This is Pete Wisdom, now who the hell are you?" a male voice said in a tired tone.

"My name is Sofia von Doom and I am the heir the Latverian throne among other such titles," replied, somewhat relieved to have finally got through.

"What the hell does Doom want with Britain and why is it a matter of national security?"

"Actually it's not us that are a threat to you currently. My father was approached by the lord of our pale faced neighbours yesterday, who wanted a pact of non-aggression between us while he sought to invade Britain and take it as his kingdom." The man remained silent for a long moment.

"You called to tell me Dracula wants to invade us?"

"Essentially, yes."

"And why should I be trusting you?"

"Because for one I do not wish to see the place of my birth become a desolate land; secondly because Latveria holds no love for the bastards who leer at our border far too much; and thirdly because you know that if there is even a chance I'm telling the truth and you don't act upon it you will hate yourself for it later."

"That sounds like a line from a film."

"My girlfriend has been introducing me to modern culture."

"Hah, but why still; what's in this for you?"

"Well, apart from hopefully fostering some more friendly relations with Europe than Latveria has previously had, we may be inclined to removing the man from his throne to secure our own lands safety. That and…"

"What?"

"Dracula may be in possession of a certain artefact which belongs to me. Well, technically it belonged to my mother, who made it, but it is mine by blood right and I would frankly prefer it out of the hands of such a person who may very well result in tearing this world asunder."

"What is it exactly?"

"The Darkhold. It is-."

"A grimoire of dark magic written by Chthon and bound together by Morgana le Fay; I know my Arthurian legend considering my job. She was your mother?"

"Yes, and it was dangerous enough in her hands as she merely studied it. Dracula is a man who is willing to use it."

"And why should you be the one to have it? I hardly trust an object of huge power to someone like Doctor Doom."

"This isn't for him, it's for me. And I'm not even sure he has the damn thing."

"Alright, I'll make some calls and preparations."

"Do it subtly, it is best he remain in the dark to any machinations."

#############################################################################################

"Let's go fight some vampires she said. It'll be fun she said. Help our relationship she said," Sofia stated scathingly while using a silver blade that emerged from the underside of her wrist to carve deep runes into the stone floor.

"Hey, it's not every day you fight off an undead legion," Valeria replied while holding up a dome-like shield around the redhead's work. "Besides, it was your idea to help them in the first place."

"I didn't mean putting you back in a battle again so soon after last time."

"God you sound like my mom."

"Oh will you two shut up," yelled Pete from where he was taking down vampires left and right. "This day just keeps getting better; first we're invaded by vampires, then the UN refuses any help and Osborn has the gall to call me similar to his green goblin-y ass, and then, I find out the only back-up we're getting is a pair of teenage girls."

"I resent that," Valeria replied, bulging her force field a bit to knock away another pale faced undead towards Captain Britain.

"Never underestimate a woman, Pete," quipped Spitfire, punching away another of the seemingly endless army.

"Oh I'm not being sexist, I'm just sceptical that a teenager can use something that Dr Strange couldn't get to work right," Pete replied, ducking a thrown battle-axe and sending his light daggers back at the owner.

"The so called 'Montesi Formula' was bastardized from a spell on a loose page of the Darkhold," Sofia stated while bringing her silvery blade round to give a flick to the edge of a rune before moving over to the next in the complex circle. "I happen to have studied the original version back when my mother held the book, and I know how to refine and concentrate the spell using the underlying power resident within the British Isles, and aspects of my own power and connection to both the earth and death."

"Err, how are you connected with those again?" Valeria asked, confused.

"Fae blood on the former, and aspects of my priesthood towards the Morrigan for the latter. I'm sending them directly into the night-mother's embrace."

"Am I the only one who thinks that sounds ominous?" Spitfire questioned.

"Nope, because it is. The various gods of death do not like being separated from their quota of souls, and as such this many undead leaving this plane of existence is going to be….well, something spectacular I assume," Sofia replied, finishing the last of the carvings into stone. "Done."

"If this damages the bloody palace…" Pete said angrily, looking up at said Palace of Buckingham; national monument and very important to the national pride of the island.

"No promises," Sofia said vaguely, while placing herself in the middle of the circle and began to chant, purple light spreading across her arms and lighting up her eyes beneath the green cowl she had once more donned for combat. The hidden blade that had emerged from her black wrist once more flashed out and opened the silvery slit on her flesh hand, the blood moving with the spell to coat the carved runes with a thin layer of crimson.

Sofia felt Valeria come up behind her while the violet magic filled the air rather than just remaining on her form, suffusing the space in the circle.

As the final syllable dropped from her lips, Sofia sagged in the wave of lethargy that came from expending so much magical energy. Immediately soft hands encircled her waist and pulled her up on a transparent circle into the sky.

"Move it or lose it people!" Valeria cried, pulling the pair of them over to a rooftop of the palace.

As Sofia slowly regained control of her faculties, the duo were joined by the rest of the group in looking over into the courtyard to see the fireworks.

It started like a reverse bolt of lightning, purple energy arcing up into the air in a shape reminiscent of an electrical surge. It grew wide as white light glowed at the base of the circle, sigils holding in the newly created portal as purple energy created a huge pillar that disappeared into the sky above.

"Holy shit," Pete said quietly at the view.

All around, vampires that had previously been scaling the walls and causing havoc paused, seeing their forms being suffused with violet energy.

"Three," said Sofia tiredly, grabbing onto Valeria from where she was sitting next to her. "Two," the undead were clutching their heads now and screaming in pain. "One," the pale bodies collapsed as one, an amethyst burst of energy from each and every one flying over towards the indigo pillar that absorbed them all like a fly-zapper. "Get down," Sofia stated, pulling Valeria with her as she laid down on her front.

"What are you-," Valeria's protest was cut off by the huge rush of wind that buffeted the group from behind, energy flying at huge speed overhead to impact on the beam. The sheer force of it whipped clothes and hair around, and she heard a few cracks and smashes of glass as a few windows in the historic building gave way.

After a few seconds, the wave ended, and Sofia and Valeria peered up over the top of the building to see just a crater where the pillar had been, remains of sigils barely recognisable on the edge, and piles of ash scattered around from vampire remains.

"Now that was badass," commented Valeria. Sofia chuckled slightly, standing up on aching bones.

"So that killed all of them?" Spitfire inquired curiously. "Glad you gave me this thing to protect me," she held up a small band which Sofia had hastily knocked up with correct glyphs to defend in case the spell recognised her vampire blood against the human.

"Killed all the ones on the island; anyone outside of Britain will be unharmed," Sofia replied.

"Then the job isn't finished yet," Captain Britain declared, "can you use that necklace you gave Faiza?"

"As long as she has it on her, I can get us to her and Black Knight."

"I want that back by the way," Valeria stated grumpily, still somewhat miffed the other woman had her possession regardless of it being temporary.

"Then let's go get it back from her," Sofia replied, gathering her strength back after the exhausting magic she had previously performed she recited the spell that caught them all in its violet hold.

#############################################################################################

"So that's it then?" Valeria asked from the other side of the throne room as Sofia walked over with a large, old tome wrapped in dark leather overlaid in gold.

"This is it: the most dangerous book in existence," she replied, stepping around where Excalibur was still standing by Dracula's remains in the form of ash. "Kept it under his throne."

"What's so dangerous about it exactly?" the blonde replied, staring at the gilded book.

"Originally written by the elder god Chthon, bound together by Morgana le Fay, this is most likely the largest collection of such powerful spells on Earth besides the Book of Vishanti. And half the things in here are designed for an unsuspecting mortal to summon Chthon back to this plane, tear apart the planet or bring a new age of darkness to this world," Sofia stated. "Normally I argue that 'dark magic' as it is often called is merely a term used by people against those they disapprove of, and that magic has the intent of the caster not of its own. The things in here however…"

"I'm glad you see it for what it is," the red and blue clad captain said, striding over to the pair. "What do you plan to do with it?"

"For now, lock it away in the deepest darkest place I can find," she replied, "at bare minimum until I have reached a level when I believe I can study it, which most likely won't be for at least a decade, probably two. I don't intend to mess with forces I can't control as the cliché goes." The man nodded in approval of her answer, seemingly satisfied that she wouldn't attempt something stupid.

"Hey, von Doom," the woman who went by Excalibur called, holding something in her hand, "catch." Sofia deftly caught the object thrown, and smiled lightly at the shard of mithril on its leather string. She took it in hand, and placed it back over Valeria's head where it belonged.

"I told you you'd get your jewellery back," Sofia said teasingly to the blonde.

"And I told you we'd have fun," she replied. The redhead laughed, and leant down to capture her girlfriend's lips in a soft kiss.

A few days later

"You know I thought my Mom was gonna blow when I asked to start staying the night occasionally again," Valeria said as the pair stepped out of a vortex of amethyst energy.

"I think your father worrying about me having PTSD helped us out there," Sofia replied, placing her friend's bag on the floor of the room. Her eyes were caught by a cardboard box and a letter by the end of her bed. "Oh, that must be the pressurized canister I ordered," she said, regarding the large box.

Sitting on the edge of her large bed, she picked up the letter that was on top and frowned at the British stamp and her name and address inked in flowing script.

"Who's that from?" Valeria asked, sitting down next to her.

"Someone British; might be an official thank you from MI: 13 I suppose," she replied as curiosity took her and she deftly opened the envelope, noting the fine quality of both the packaging and the paper within. Pulling out the letter, her eyes swept from side to side in the text. "Dear Lady von Doom, the British Commonwealth would like to officially extend thanks to you and your counterpart for actions in protecting the sovereignty of our nation and her people during such a difficult time and situation," she muttered, "and as such would like to extend…."

Sofia's voice trailed off as she read the next line, her eyes bulging slightly and mouth dropping open.

"What is it?" Valeria asked curiously, and Sofia merely gaped at a loss for words for once. To her utmost embarrassment, it was at this point in her life that Sofia experienced the sensation known as fainting from shock.

#############################################################################################

"I can't believe this is happening," Valeria said as the pair pulled on matching crimson red mantles lined in white, over the top of their blue and green dresses respectively.

"It's not that uncommon in Britain as a monarchy," Sofia replied, smiling as she looked around the extravagant room, "Captain America was honoured posthumously for his wartime actions, and most of the members of MI: 13 have titles and awards for services to Queen and country."

"Still, we're standing in Buckingham Palace about to be knighted!"

"Dame Grand Cross of the most honourable military Order of the Bath," Sofia let the words roll off her tongue, "it does sound quite something doesn't it?"

"You're the only one who gets to actually call herself Dame So-and-so, mine is only honorary."

"Only on a technicality as I was born in Scotland, and you still have GCB at the end of your name, and the medal and mantle and such."

"I haven't told my parents about this so when I go home in them I get to see the look of surprise on their faces." The pair shared a laugh at the thought.

"I need to be there when that happens; I can't wait to see your mother's face."

The pair were still in fits of giggles when the door at the other end of the room opened and a male voice announced:

"Her Ladyship, Sofia von Doom, heir to the Latverian throne, and Doctor Valeria Richards, PhD, MEng, MSc."

The pair smoothed their features, and their mantles, and tried not to let nervousness show in their gait as they walked gracefully towards the room wherein stood a certain woman with a sword.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I think we have our smoking gun," Sofia remarked as she walked into the war room, moving items on a thin electronic tablet. "I'll have to confess I don't feel particularly sorry for what's going to happen to Volstagg considering he took my arm."

"Osborn is consolidating his forces, and he had a meeting with the President last night; he means to move against Asgard," her father replied.

"And I think this is the perfect time to move forward. When the USSR fell apart, certain things went missing; a few dozen planes and tanks here and there, missiles, money of course. I think there are a few key places under HAMMER command that will be lacking in personnel to guard over the next few hours."

"What are your suggestions?" Doom inquired.

"We have a number of options; I know Osborn has a few covert facilities where he has been experimenting on and trying to create super-humans, the methods could be worth something; Project Pegasus is under his command and has several interesting artefacts worth considering, including the remains of a cosmic cube," swiping onto another file on her tablet she paused, before turning it round to show Doom, "and then there's this: the helicarrier Hercules. One and only constellation-class, designed by Stark and Richards as a response to the Atlantean threat, fully submersible as well as normal flight and stealth capability, only about a year old and never used. Officially, it doesn't exist, and in reality it sits in a hangar where Osborn's techs have been trying and failing to get around Stark's programming to even start the damn thing. If it were to disappear, no-one would be able to question it or raise concerns publically as technically it does not exist and no-one will want to admit they were creating weapons against the Atlanteans."

"A helicarrier could be very useful in the right situation."

"Our own aerial warship."

"We stand a chance of being recognised on camera if we attempt anything however, I believe it is time for these," the man replied, pulling a lever on the console in the middle of the room. A section of stone wall dropped away to reveal two things: the first was a slim black suit on a female mannequin with a visored helmet, roughly the same height and size as Sofia, and the second was a much larger black mechanical suit of armour with visible weaponry and powerful wide limbs.

"When did you make these?" Sofia inquired, walked over to the ebony suit, noting the belt and two small mounted guns on each outer wrist, and the technologically advanced helm.

"The suit is recent; based on the same designs used for the most recent Captain America's apparel it is interwoven with adamantium and custom designed to fit you. The other is an adapted design from when the USSR tried to invade a number of years ago, and I took the 'Crimson Dynamo' captive. I've since used the mechanics in various Doombot models, and this armour for when it might be useful."

Sofia ran a hand down the slick material of the suit, and grinned.

#############################################################################################

With careful movements, Sofia pressed herself up against the grey wall by the corner in the corridor. Her black suit was skin-tight and very easy to move around silently in, with a small backpack slung secured on a bandolier from her belt to shoulder.

She looked around the area, her sight tinted green by the night vision in her helm. Said headgear picked out another camera up by the ceiling, and she fired a blast of electrical energy from one of the wrist mounted blasters to fry the circuits. While the power may be off, it would unlikely remain so for long, and the less footage of her the better.

Shuffling closer to the edge of the wall, her mind idly wandered to thoughts on how her father was doing securing the Hercules. She peered round the corner to see three armed men in HAMMER jumpsuits running down the corridor towards her.

She concealed herself back around the corner and waited for them to approach. As soon as the first one passed her line of sight she leapt into action.

Grabbing the barrel of the first man's gun, she whipped it up into his unsuspecting head, making a cracking noise as the scope collided with his grey helmet.

Even as he dropped from the force of the blow she was bringing the stolen gun around to point at the next nearest, who she shot in the thigh, causing him to give a cry of pain.

She pulled the weapon up again with both hands to defend against a shot from the last soldier, whose bullet shattered part of the gun. Sofia kicked out a leg at his gun, pushing off the aim of his next shot that ricocheted in the corridor. With her newly free right arm she popped off an electric shock at him from her own wrist mounted weapon, dropping him as arcs of electric energy covered his screaming form.

She brought the useless rifle up in her hands like a baseball bat, and swung at the last man standing who was just recovering from his injured leg, who dropped like a stone upon her impact into his head.

Giving a smile of satisfaction, she dropped the gun and prowled forwards into the facility that was three more guards down on its already low defensive force, many having been taken to their leader's hare-brained attack on Asgard.

Performing the same peeping tom arrangement at the end of the corridor, Sofia spied her goal across the empty room. The heavy reinforced door had the words 'Containment Room 001: Authorised Personnel Only' stamped in black on it.

She strolled over to it, casually shooting out another camera on the way without breaking step. She reached out a hand to touch the door, aware that under lockdown this was a secure room, and the door was locked with thick bars into its sliding place.

With a single thought, a silvery blade pierced through her suit from the underside of her wrist, and she maneuvered it to the side of the door, along where it met the frame. With a not unsubstantial push from her powerful artificial arm, the silvery blade slipped in at the top. Moving it down she encountered the resistance of the first steel bar keeping the door locked.

She quickly murmured a few words which made the mithril blade glow with a red aura, and she could feel the heat despite her protective garments. With a smile on her lips, she used the trusty blade that she had carried for so many years to melt away the metal of the door around the steel bolt. It was hard, slow work, and she had to physically pull the blazing edge down to get it through, before it eventually slipped down quickly, indicating the first bar was done. She repeated herself three more times on the remaining bars, all too aware of the ticking clock as she had spent at least ten minutes standing there, and it was only a matter of time before the power was reinstated or someone discovered her.

With a final twist, the final bar was cut, and she finished off the odd shaped line carved into the door, cutting off the spell as she did.

Sofia pulled her metal arm back, and delivered an almighty punch to the door, making the military-beige painted metal cave in slightly as it swung open on a hinge. She strolled into the room, noting the remains of the four inch thick bars in the doorframe.

Looking around the chamber, she noted several small devices that were presumably for laser beams that would have otherwise made her life difficult had she not disabled the power. Her attention was mainly on the transparent case in the centre of the room, and as she approached it she saw the shards of yellow crystal within.

Blade still unsheathed, Sofia pressed it to the glass and slid it round in a circle, engraving the scratched shape into the bullet-proof glass. She slipped the weapon back into her limb, and moved to withdraw something from a pouch on her belt. From within she took a piece of putty that she stuck in the centre of her circle, and then from a second pouch a small pointed diamond.

Sticking the diamond point first into the putty, she withdrew her arm back, then punched the metallic limb forward with all the might that its magic awarded her. It collided and made a sound cracking noise, a spider web moving out from the centre but not going far beyond her engraved circle. Her arm moved back once more, and upon slamming forwards, the glass smashed around that point into a small opening.

With the hole made, Sofia unclipped her backpack from the bandolier keeping it in place, opened it, and held it near the opening.

She made a gesture with her other hand, and whispered a few occult words that didn't make it out of her helmet so as not to allow any identification of her voice. As she maintained the spell, the yellow shards floated up one-by-one and fell into the open and waiting sack.

Sofia slung her prize back over her shoulder, deftly clipping it into place, and turned to walk out of the room when the lights flickered on. She flinched as light blinded her, the helmet still being on night vision. As it swiftly adjusted, she stared with annoyance at the sight: in front of her, the air suddenly buzzing with red laser beams criss-crossing the room.

She gave a sigh of exasperation as she realised that now cameras and recording devices were active, she couldn't teleport away lest her signature purple magic be identifiable.

Grimacing, she braced herself and ran forward, ignoring the immediate blaring of alarms in her ears as she broke the beams. She jumped and slid along the floor by the exit, just avoiding the steel shutter than slammed down behind her. She pulled herself back to her feet, and looked around at the corridor, considering the loud noise of sirens and the faint but unmistakable noise of booted feet running in her direction.

Giving another sigh, she braced herself to fight her way out of the facility.

#############################################################################################

Sofia wheeled through the air, eyes trained solely downwards as she considered the helicarrier currently sitting in the large lake just to the north of where Doomstadt would stand in approximately eighteen hundred years. As she circled back down to land on the craft, she thought once again on how intelligent an idea it was really to hide the vessel in the past; after all, this country wasn't even due to be settled in for a few centuries.

She banished her shadowy wings as she stepped lightly onto the deck by her father, who was standing by his mechanized suit of black armour. She pulled off her ebony helmet as she approached; flicking her head slightly at the sudden freedom her long crimson locks were afforded.

"You're later than I expected," Doom stated.

"Had to fight my way out, took me a while to get away to a location far enough away to teleport and not stand a chance to be caught on camera," she replied, "did you face any issues?"

"None, there was barely a skeleton crew in the hangar; Osborn had somewhat given up trying to break into this machine."

"Quite the machine it is; it seems bigger in person," she commented, looking around at the deck. "Though we have a lot of renovations to do; starting with eight turbines instead of six methinks, maybe use some repulsor technology on them instead as well."

"We face much the same three main issues as in Tank creation."

"Oh, what are they?"

"Speed and maneuverability, armour and firepower."

"Mm," she replied, slinging her rucksack off her shoulder. "I dare say it may require a bit heavier ordinance; a railgun here or there wouldn't hurt. In other news however; these may lead us to some developments in power sources." She held the bag open, allowing the golden glow to seep from its depths.

"Do you think you could utilise them in your heavy particle fusion reactor designs?"

"That is…not a bad idea, in fact that may be just the thing to get it to work," Sofia said contemplatively, thinking of the various reactor design attempts she had made from the calculations and thesis that recently earned her a PhD in nuclear physics from Cambridge University; having wanted to be on equal qualifications level as her girlfriend. Nothing had worked so far with the present level of technology available to her; she had even tried utilising one of Tony Stark's Arc reactor designs at her partner's suggestion, but it simply didn't have the right capability for heavy fusion replication; every scenario and permutation she fed into her computer came out as a failure for the self-sustainable reactor design she had hypothesised. "Theoretically I may be able to use its unique properties to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect."

"How small can the design be exactly?"

"Depends on the power output; obviously it increases exponentially with size, but even the smaller designs should still generate a large amount of power."

"Then I think this helicarrier is perhaps the perfect test subject; it already has a fairly large engine room, that's the space you have to work with. I'll work on the armaments and armour."

"Sounds like a plan," Sofia smiled as ideas for harnessing the latent power in the shards whipped through her head. She was so distracted, she didn't notice her father's spell work until orange light suffused them, and she looked up to be back in the war room. "Oh, that reminds me; what happened at Asgard anyway? I didn't have time to check," she inquired curiously, regarding the monitors on the wall that were flicking on to various news channels as Doom turned the system on. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the city of Asgard lying on the ground, many of the buildings crumbled. Another screen flicked to live footage of someone falling from the sky, swiftly followed by numerous other shapes.

Sofia watched as the God of Thunder tried to stand and was swiftly beaten down with energy fired from that Ms. Marvel of Osborn's, swiftly followed by the man himself, gaudy armour and all.

As she watched the man get beaten into the ground, she started suddenly as the shard of metal around her neck heated up suddenly against her skin.

#############################################################################################

Sofia stepped out of purple light into the open living area of the Baxter Building in somewhat of a hurry, still pulling on her left vambrace over her bare arm.

"I told you she'd come," said a voice, and Sofia was knocked back slightly by a body that slammed into her, hugging firmly. She looked down at Valeria, her quick heartbeat calming slightly upon seeing her girlfriend unharmed.

"If you're coming, we need to go now," said an unfamiliar voice, and she looked up to see a dark skinned man in what looked distinctly like a SHIELD jumpsuit, minus the insignia.

"Okay, sure, make the jump now," Valeria said to the man.

"No," Susan said from beside him, gathered with the rest of the Four suited up in blue, "you're too young, you're not coming."

"No Mom. We've already got knighthoods for gallantry in this same situation and we're old enough to make our own decisions; Eden, punch it," the blonde replied. The man, now identified as Eden, shrugged and made some gestures with his hands. Sofia looked around at the circular orange tunnel they now floated in, watching as the various members of the group moved up and down relative to each other. She felt a slight falling sensation as they dropped out of the tunnel into a large darkened room.

"Good job Eden, just the X-Men left, though I'm not sure how many you'll get," said a man nearby, and Sofia blinked upon seeing the infamous eyepatch wearing grizzled veteran Nick Fury. Eden popped out of space again, and she turned to survey the large room they now stood in; her heart froze upon seeing the sight of numerous well known costumes-and some she didn't know- from various Avengers teams.

"Val," she said softly, feeling suddenly as if the sheep in the den of wolves.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"What's wrong?" Valeria asked as Sofia dragged her into one of the dark corners of the large living room filled with superhumans.

"What were you thinking?" she hissed in return, "you want me going to a place where everyone wants to kill me, and indeed have tried in past?"

"Wait, do you mean this place or Asgard?"

"Both! Either! I don't know!" she replied, running a hand through her crimson locks. "The last time I saw an Asgardian, he nearly killed you and he cut off my arm instead. Last time I was in the same place as some people in this room; I was slammed into a wall and imprisoned for a crime we didn't even commit."

"Uh, sorry to interrupt," a female voice said from behind Sofia, and she turned slowly to see the blonde haired visage of Ms. Marvel, the real Ms. Marvel this time of course. "Can't help overhearing, fair few of us here have hyper senses. I kinda wanted to say sorry for the whole wall thing; I honestly didn't think it would connect or that you'd go down so easily, or that you were so young and…it sounded like it hurt." The woman played with her fingers slightly rather than meet her gaze.

"It did," Sofia replied shortly, remembering the pain in her back less so at the scene of the moment, when she was otherwise distracted by her arm wound, but later on as doctors examined the broken bones in her spine.

"And, I kinda have to ask; what do you mean 'didn't commit'?" she added curiously. Sofia didn't answer for a long moment, until she felt a squeeze of her hand from the teen behind her.

"We didn't drop the bomb on NYC," she said finally. "We designed it yes, but the testing was scheduled for six hours later over an uninhabited island in the pacific; nothing but animal life. If anything we helped you by cleaning up your mess."

"What?" Ms. Marvel replied.

"Ultron set it off, worming his way into our systems in the satellite after his defeat a few days before. I purged his signature from our network and the internet after I discovered the source." The woman blinked a few times in reaction to her statement.

"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked confusedly.

"Do you honestly think it would have made a difference? Besides, my father was never tried."

"Doesn't that make his imprisonment illegal?" Valeria inquired.

"It was already illegal to invade a foreign country and imprison their head of state Val," Sofia replied, turning back around to her girlfriend. "I believe the Skrulls likely had something to do with it; my father, and to a lesser extent myself, represented a significant threat to their invasion."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," Valeria said, reaching a hand up to caress her lover's cheek. "You're the one who killed two thousand vampires in ten seconds."

"Well I had you to help me."

"And MI: 13."

"Oh I'd trade an army of superhumans for you any day," Sofia replied, reaching a hand under Valeria's chin to push it up slightly. The blonde teen smiled, and moved up to kiss her girlfriend, which the redhead happily leant into, her previous worries and the amused Ms. Marvel long forgotten.

"Heh, young love," a gruff male voice commented from behind the pair, causing Sofia to break the kiss, and turn around to view their voyeur. She raised an eyebrow at the infamous Wolverine, accompanied by a few other members of the X-men.

"You look shorter in person," Sofia replied, bringing a snort from the man.

"You're one to talk kid," he quipped.

"Be careful who you call 'kid,'" Sofia let a burst of energy infuse her eyes to briefly glow purple.

"We're not actually the youngest here," Valeria commented while looking around at the various occupants of the room.

The room suddenly descended into silence as a man entered through the main doorway, his blonde hair visible as his mask pooled around his neck. What made Sofia's eyes bulge out was that she recognised both his face and uniform.

"He's supposed to be dead," she muttered softly as the man stepped forward to address the assembled group.

"This heartens me, it really does to see so many people here," Steve Rogers proclaimed. "People I know and have worked with, and those I only know through reputation, and I thank you all for coming to address the threat that Norman Osborn represents. The current situation as it stands are the Asgardians are on their last legs, and Thor is down but not out. We have a very small window to do something before they're overwhelmed. As some of you may know, I am not one to mince words, so I will merely say this; this is going to take all of us, working together to defeat this madman and his army. So suit up and good luck." With his piece said, he turned and walked back through the doorway, followed by a slow trickle of costumed people.

"I can't believe I'm standing here right now," Sofia said to Valeria as they followed through the doorway into a hangar that housed a large vehicle that resembled the Quinjet in more ways than one, which people were filing into. She cocked her head as she regarded the plane, wracking her memory to find where she had seen it before.

"Is this…?" she let the question to herself hang in the air.

"A little something I forgot to give SHIELD back when they canned me," Fury commented as he walked past.

"You actually got the wormhole drive to work?"

"How do you know about that?" the man asked, fixing his single eye upon her.

"Hacking HAMMER," she replied simply, he snorted at her words and stepped up the boarding ramp.

Valeria pulled her girlfriend up the ramp and into the transport ship, managing to secure two of the front row seats next to Spiderman, Ms. Marvel and Patriot.

"All these straps make this look like a BDSM chair or something," Spiderman commented as Sofia sat down next to him, while he fumbled with said harness.

"Trust me, they're there for a reason," Sofia replied while chuckling.

"What do you know about this ship? You're a bit young to be a SHIELD agent," he quipped.

"I've seen the specs for the engine; let me simply say that if I went in for the modern 'Sweet Sixteen' birthday thing, I would quite possibly ask for one of those."

"You'd want an engine for your sixteenth?" Patriot inquired.

"One like this, sure. Although I get the feeling my father is giving me something different."

"Oh, and what's a ruler of a nation giving his daughter for her sixteenth?" Ms. Marvel said.

"A helicarrier."

"Wait, what?" Spiderman stated, turning in his seat against the 'bondage straps' to look at her.

"Alright boys and girls, I hope you're buckled up," shouted the female pilot who was sitting up front with Nick Fury. Sofia felt the slight shifting of weight in her stomach as they lifted up, and she could see through the glass cockpit as hangar doors opened and they shot out quickly. "For when you absolutely need to get your security force around the world," she commented, flicking switches on the ceiling. There was a massive jolt as every passenger was pushed back into their seat through extreme G as the vehicle accelerated into a hole in space.

"No-one's gonna say 'Damn I gotta get me one'a these'? No-one?" Spiderman said loudly.

"I was more thinking of peeking under the hood and stealing the design, but sure let's go with that," Sofia replied, struggling to talk over the force pushing her back.

"I was wondering why our jet doesn't have this," grunted Wolverine from the row behind.

"Help me steal this one and I'll upgrade yours," she threw over her shoulder.

"Sofia," her significant other said warningly.

"Joking, just joking," she replied, smiling as her blonde fixed her with a stare, "mostly."

Valeria might have perhaps said more but they were all jolted forward in their seats as they came back out into normal space.

"Alright; those who can fly or don't mind the fall front and centre," the female pilot shouted, against a new whistling of wind as the ramp at the back of the ship opened.

Sofia, Valeria, Spiderman and Ms. Marvel began unbuckling from their places at the command.

"I still can't believe I'm doing this," Sofia remarked to Valeria.

"Don't worry, we all got it our first time out with the Avengers," Spiderman said as he struggled in his seat, "hey, uh, would one of you mind…?"

"How can you have a degree in science and not know how to unbuckle yourself?" Ms. Marvel remarked, pressing the button at the centre of the harness while rolling her eyes.

"Not all of us have that army training you know."

"Air Force," Ms. Marvel corrected him, "and don't make me start having you refer to me as Colonel Danvers."

"Why do you always play up your rank?" the most recent Captain America asked as they neared the open ramp. Sofia noted he was wielding a chunky assault rifle, and it was Rogers who currently held the legendary shield.

"Because it's fun to outrank Captain America," Ms. Marvel replied, putting a hand up to steady herself on the ceiling as the wind buffeted them.

"Enough chatter, let's move," Rogers stated, and jumped from the still moving aircraft.

Sofia swore, and moved to follow among the others as they all jumped.

As she fell through the air she whispered the words to endow her with her beloved shadowy wings, the words whipped away by buffeting winds as the ground grew closer.

"Avengers Assemble!" Rogers shouted as he threw his shield at the visible figure of the Iron Patriot below.

"Oh man I can't believe I'm included in that," said Patriot from behind her.

"You and me both," she replied, flaring her wings at the last second to alight with a much smaller impact upon the ground.

Battle erupted all around as their forces landed and engaged Osborn's, the man himself being set upon by the mighty Steven Rogers.

Sofia found herself and Valeria facing off against 'Ms. Marvel,' or as she was really named; Moonstone.

"I believe you're familiar with this spell," Sofia told her as she began chanting, defended by her blonde girlfriend from a few light blasts from Moonstone. As the redhead finished chanting, she grinned maniacally, feeling battle-lust singing its way into her skull. Moonstone paled somewhat when clawed hands began making their way out of the Earth, misshapen bodies and heads sporting beady black eyes.

"Oh fuck not those again," the identity thief remarked as the monsters engaged her. She had no time to regard the attack as she swiftly ducked an incoming purple arrow.

"Didn't we fucking save your life last time girlie?" Bullseye remarked as he flew around their heads on his glider. "You should be helping us."

"Sorry, my girlfriend trumps that," she replied, sending a purple blast of energy up at him that he swerved to avoid.

"Love you babe," Valeria said while outstretching a hand to create a force field that Bullseye slammed into, knocking him off his glider while swearing all the way. "Wow, you need to rinse your mouth out."

"Fucking bitch," he shouted as he got up, and Sofia ran over just as he was nocking another arrow. She held her right arm out in front of her, making the launched projectile clatter off it ineffectually before sending the arm back out to slap him with the back of her hand. She reached out her hands and made the correct movements and words to bind the foul mouthed imposter with the crimson bands of Cyttorak, once again feeling the usefulness of the spell.

With him subdued, she looked up and around, searching out what had become of her summoned hell-beasts. She instead saw the sight of Rogers holding out his infamous shield to deflect repulsor blasts from Osborn.

"Steven Rogers you're under arrest!" Osborn shouted over the noise of battle.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you," the stoic solider replied.

"You're under arrest, you're all under arrest, you're going to fry for… for treason," he shouted desperately, firing off repulsors at all the heroes that were converging on the man. He froze when he made the pushing gesture and no beam came out, he did it again and shook his armoured hand. "What?"

"That's me hacking into your armour," a voice declared, and Sofia looked up to see Iron Man in some older looking armour flying down, "and by that I mean the armour you stole from me. I'll have it shut down for good in just a minute." As the armoured man descended to land on a rooftop, he was accompanied by the 'mighty' Thor.

"No, no! Victoria!" Osborn shouted frantically as he was slowly surrounded, "Bob, don't let them win, bring it all down!" As the armour lifted off the man's form and slipped into his belt, his face was exposed.

"Told ya," Valeria muttered as she regarded the green and purple face paint on the man's face as he spun around.

"And suddenly it's all worthwhile," Spiderman declared swinging down to the space that had been cleared around the defeated man.

"No, no, no, you don't know what you've done," he screeched into the air, spinning around at the gathered forces with wide manic eyes. "You think you've done something here? You don't know what you've done."

"Oh will you shut up," Spiderman declared, moving forward to hit him around the face. The man keeled over from the punch, weakly trying to push off the ground.

"No, no I was the only one who could control him, me, the only one," he raved. A chill went up Sofia's spine for some reason as she watched Thor approach the downed man.

"Where is Loki, Osborn? Where is my brother in all this?" He demanded in that odd regal accent Asgardians had.

"He's dead," Osborn muttered, cradling his head.

"What? What madness do you speak?"

"He's dead, you're dead, you're all dead," he raved in reply, turning his face to the sky. "I was the only one who could control him."

Sofia-as well as everyone else-followed his gaze into the air, wherein the man once known as Robert Reynolds was floating down to land on the other side of the courtyard from Osborn. That same chill shivered its way down Sofia's spine as she looked at his face; veiny and pale, and his eyes glowed a malevolent red.

Thor stepped up to the breach, confidently stalking over to the man before leaping while a lightning bolt powered his hammer to smash into the Sentry's face. The blow simply made the man's head twist to the side, his body not even moving.

"How many gods must I kill today?" he said in an odd tone, disjointed and dark as his fist slapped out to lay a heavy punch into Thor, grabbing him to fly through several walls. The pair emerged on the other side of Asgard, the shape of the thunder god dropping from the other as it flew into the air and back at them.

"How did you control him?" Rogers' demanding voice drew attention to where he held up Osborn by the scruff of his neck.

"I sympathised," he said meekly.

"How do we stop him!?"

"You, you can't," Osborn replied shakily, "he's the angel of death."

The soldier had no more time to demand of the fallen leader as the world around them got slightly darker, and was bathed in a red tinge. As one, the eyes of every spectator raised to the figure in the sky.

The black mass at the centre was vaguely sitting cross legged from what could be seen, with a disproportionate number of red limbs extending from his body. Four crimson eyes glowed with malice in an insect-like head. This was the Void, the Sentry's killer alter ego. And that damn fool Osborn had let it out.

The being lazily reached up a clawed hand to the sky, glowing with an aura of power that washed over them. All at once, arcs of black energy spread out from him, destroying masonry that hadn't already fallen and impacting on the various heroes and villains still standing.

Sofia tried to mutter a few words to protect herself, but a bolt of energy slammed into her stomach sending her flying backwards in throes of pain. Hitting a wall jarred her bones, and likely would have broken them if she hadn't hit with her metal arm first. As she slumped to the floor, she tried to struggle up lifting her head to see a similar arc of energy blast past Valeria's shield and send her flying from her line of vision.

With no small effort, she raised her metal hand to the sky in the hope of firing a spell but instead was buffeted again, slamming her back down into the earth. Her bones ached from the onslaught of impact, and it seemed like the whole world was weighing down on her shoulders. She could only turn her head and see the few people struggling against the power; most of the Avengers were no longer standing, even Rogers himself on his knees trying to hold up his shield. The Void simply hung there in the sky, laughing at the pitiful efforts of those who stood against him.

It was then there was a rush of energy from behind Sofia, not like the Void's, but magical in nature, with a definite Asgardian 'taste.' It was a long few moments before the wave returned outwards again from where it had moved, and Sofia felt it imbue her limbs. White light mixed in with a rainbow plethora of colour flickered around her limbs, and those of the others she noted.

"Um, you guys feeling this?" shouted Stark, from where he was staring down at the light.

"I think we're getting a second chance Iron Man," Rogers replied, getting up from his position on the ground.

"I'm a big fan of those," Cage commented, walking over with his head inclined to the sky.

"A second chance is all the mighty hammer of Thor will need," declared the Asgardian, flying over from where the Void had left him earlier.

"Uh-oh, I think someone's gonna get beat down like no-one's been beat down before," commented Spiderman.

"You had to ruin the moment Spidey, it was all serious before," quipped the one voice Sofia most wanted to hear. As she checked Valeria over visually, the blonde simply nodded her head to signify she was alright, before joining the others in looking at the Void.

On some seemingly ungiven cue, everybody surged upwards, those that could fly moving to attack the red behemoth.

"Okay, this I like. Battery's charged, systems online," Stark shouted, "hit him every which way, Avengers! Every Direction, everything you got, don't let up!"

Sofia slit open her palm almost automatically as everyone attacked the shape, chanting as quickly as her lips allowed while crimson glyphs formed in a rotating circle in front of her. Her eyes searched quickly for a clear shot as she did, wary of all the people moving through the air around the Void as well as projectiles.

As she dropped the last syllable, her body stiffened as power flooded through it, acting as a conduit for whatever had given them this strength, adding her own as she went. The beam of light was spectacular, glowing off the end of Tyrion purple and pummelling straight into the Void's side, unloading deep energy. She felt a sense of satisfaction as it gave a screech of pain.

"What is this? This isn't right, it's trickery," that deep, strange voice sounded out even as Captain America's shield pierced through its throat and out the other side. "No, not trickery; mischief."

The void descended as Sofia lost the strength to fuel the spell, dropping hands to her knees at the wave of exhaustion from the intense magic.

"You will pay for what you've done here, monster!" a loud voice declared from a ways away, and Sofia could just make out the bright multi-coloured light seeping up from that direction.

"Magic rocks? No, we won't be having any of that," it declared in response, and a scream was heard from below.

"Loki!" bellowed Thor, flying down to meet the monster as Sofia felt the power fade from her limbs, and looking around the same for everyone else as well. The God of mischief must have been the one responsible.

"Uh oh."

"So much for the power upgrade."

"What does it mean?"

"It means we're screwed."

Sofia ignored the comments of her fellows instead concentrating on two things; Valeria and the Void, specifically where they were.

"On your feet soldiers!" shouted Barnes, raising his assault rifle, "we still got a job to do."

"You've attacked the House of Odin vile one!" thundered Thor as his sentiment was echoed by the stormy skies that quickly divulged their electric arcs upon the unprepared Void.

Rather than be disheartened by the loss of the power boost, all around people attacked with even more ferocity, with desperation.

Valeria swung down on her circle of transparency and scooped up Sofia, bringing her into the air with her as the redhead leant on her for support. They joined the crowd of superhumans unleashing everything they had on the Void, giving it their all. They stopped firing however when they were all overshadowed from behind, turning as one to see Stark flying by a crashing helicarrier. The giant floating war-machine plummeted down to impact on the Void in an explosion of fire and heat. The pair shielded their eyes against the bright light, and when it faded, looked down to see a single man left on the ground.

Slowly, the whole large group descended on the skinny, naked blond who was just picking himself up off the earth.

"Err, did, did I do this?" he said hesitantly as he was approached by dozens of costumed people, many with wounds or tattered clothes.

"Yes," answered Rogers simply.

"Oh god, would you please…just please, kill me," he stammered out, looking at all the destruction around as tears fell from baby-blue eyes.

"No," declared Thor.

"Please."

"You will live to pay for your crimes Robert Reynolds; you will live to see penance for the death of my brother, for the fall of my home, for the betrayal of all the Avengers stand for."

"You're not listening to me," he replied quietly, before his body surged outwards in red limbs once more while screaming, "kill me!"

Lightning fell from the heavens and impacted heavily on Reynolds with the blow of Mjolnir, and again, and again. The Thunder God did not stop until all that rested on the rent earth was a charred, blackened and shattered skeleton.

#############################################################################################

"Hey, aren't you too young to be drinking?" Spiderman inquired as he walked over to the 'New Avengers' Group. Sofia smiled, taking another sip of her cider.

"Not in some European countries," she replied, "besides, back when I came from everyone used to drink wine because water was practically undrinkable. We had a much stronger alcohol tolerance than you modern people do."

"As well as more disease, lower life expectancy, no democracy…" Valeria teased.

"True, but at the end of the day I can still drink most of you under the table," she replied, smirking at her girlfriend.

"Hah, I'd like to see you try," Wolverine declared from a sofa.

"Oh no, not against you. I'm many things, but I'm not an idiot." The man chuckled at her response, downing the last of his beer and reaching for another one cemented her point.

"Couldn't you use some magic hoodoo to increase your metabolism or something?" Spiderman inquired.

"Probably, but it's a bad idea. You generally don't use spells on yourself, especially augmentation, they're the most dangerous if they backfire," she replied. "It's why every sorcerer isn't over six foot and built like a brick wall, or dashingly beautiful etcetera. It's not worth the risk."

"Well, I still think you're beautiful," Valeria said, reaching a hand over to place a kiss on her cheek. "And you're fairly buff as well."

"Well, I earned the latter. You've seen my gym, and before then I used to practice with a longbow."

"You can shoot?" Clint Barton inquired curiously, having re-adopted his Hawkeye persona with a bow slung over his back.

"Yes, I was born in 6th century Britain, and, well, it is called the _English_ longbow after all," she replied cockily, rubbing in the famous weapon that had seen the nation to several victories. "It was a very effective way of deploying Greek Fire."

"Then what was the fucking point?" proclaimed a loud male voice nearby, distracting what would likely have led to some competition. The group turned to find Luke Cage staring down Rogers and Stark.

"Luke!" Rogers protested.

"I told you Cage'd say that," Tony added.

"I want you to be Avengers. All of you," he continued, ignoring Stark.

"Come on Cap, you want us to move in here and do whatever you say," Cage replied.

"No, I want you to-."

"And I'm saying, all that we've been through, not just us but you too. All that we fought for and you want us to just move in here and do whatever you say?!"

"That's all behind us; this is a new day, on every level. The war is won. The battle is finished. You get to choose, and I am asking you to choose to be here. I'm not making you, no one is making you." Cage stayed silent a moment at the proclamation.

"Am I nuts or does this seem like we fought for the right to go and do exactly what Tony Stark here wanted us to do," he eventually said.

"You're both – it's both," Spiderman stated.

"You see Luke's point though, right?" asked Iron Fist.

"He definitely has a point, most everyone here fought to be free of such things," Sofia added her two cents, trying not to blush as attention briefly focused on her and she remembered exactly who she was talking to for a moment.

"Yes and no," Rogers replied, "it's a choice now, are you guys really not getting that?"

"We talked about the symbolic gesture. You get that right? I mean you were Captain America," Jessica added.

"Luke, all this time you called yourselves Avengers. Hiding in Doctor Strange's basement or wherever you were. You said you were Avengers," Stark said.

"Not just 'cause, Stark. Because he said we were," Cage pointed at Rogers.

"Do you still want to be Avengers?" Stark replied.

"Yeah, I just-."

"Give me a dollar."

"What?"

"Give. Me. A. Dollar." Quite a group had gathered around as the large man rifled through his pockets.

"I don't, uh, have any cash," Cage declared finally.

"Here," Valeria declared, since she was fairly close by, handing the man a scrunched up green bill from the depths of her blue trench coat. Cage took it and handed it over to Stark.

"Congratulations," he declared, handing Cage several sheets of paper, "you just bought a newly renovated Avengers Mansion. Now go be Avengers. Save the World."

"Wait, what?" Cage asked, staring disbelievingly down at the deed. Sofia and Valeria leant on each other, twin coats shifting as they both laughed at the situation, and the dumbfounded man, joined by several others around.

"Tony knew you were going to have problems adjusting, so this is plan B," Rogers stepped up and placed a hand on Cage's shoulder. "You want to be Avengers? You want it on your own terms? Nothing would make me happier. Go save the world. We'll have a team here; you'll have a team there. You do what you do, we'll do what we do, and knowing the way the world works we'll probably team up when we have to."

"Who do we get?" Cage said eventually, a smile gripping his features.

"Who do you want?" the man replied, before adding in a stage whisper; "you can't have Thor or Iron Man."

#############################################################################################

"I just think it needs to be looked into, and I know it's unlikely you trust me, but well…" Sofia ran out of words as she ran a hand through her crimson hair as she stood before Doctor Strange. It was only when she looked up slightly at Valeria smiling confidently from her position on Ben's rocky shoulder that she found herself again. "The world just isn't right, it's not as it once was. Even when I first arrived to this time I felt the differences, and it's worse now. With Asgard here upsetting the balance of Yggdrasil, and all the issues this dimension has faced of late…it just feels almost strained, and cracked in places."

"Don't worry, I certainly believe you, I've been aware of the situation but unsure of what to do," the man replied. "I am no longer the Sorcerer Supreme, that position belongs to Jericho Drumm."

"I know, but I can hardly walk up to his front door. I was just hoping you could pass on the message. Something is very, very wrong and I don't like it, but I am not in the right position to be able to do that much about it. It's at these times I hate my age simply because of lack of experience and knowledge."

"You should stick to science more; if you don't know something you can just look it up," Valeria said, lifting Sofia's mood slightly as she smiled up at her girlfriend.

"But magic's more fun, Val," she grinned up at her.

"I'll pass on the message when I see him next," Strange confirmed, himself sporting a light smile at the young couple's antics.

"Hey there, just the people I wanted to see," she and Strange turned to meet the proclaimer, who turned out to be Luke Cage with an arm wrapped around his wife cradling their child.

"What can we do for you Luke?" Grimm inquired, dropping Valeria off his large shoulder down by Sofia.

"I came to ask if you guys wanted to join the team," he declared.

"Luke, it's not fair to, they're already busy, I mean Ben is on the FF," Jessica protested to her husband.

"Hey, a man can ask."

"The Avengers," stated Grimm, somewhat struck dumb.

"The New Avengers. I know you got your Fantastic thing going, but you, me, all of us we got history. When 'he-who-we're-not-allowed-to-call-Captain-America-Anymore' said I could pick a team, well… damn man, your big head popped right into my mind. And Strange, man, we can't do this without you; I mean you're already a member after all that time you kept us safe from Osborn and Stark."

"That was nothing," Strange replied, "my honour wouldn't allow otherwise."

"I… I do love my family; Susie, Reed, that other guy, this little one and her brother," Ben affectionately ruffled his hand through Valeria's long hair, "but they have been driving me absolutely insane lately…"

"It's like we're not even here Val," Sofia commented to her girlfriend as she watched the proceedings, "just not big-time enough."

"Who said I wasn't talking to you?" Cage added, clearly directed at them.

"Wait, what?" Sofia stated, absolutely stunned.

"Um, I may have talked to him earlier while you were trying and failing to outshoot Hawkeye," Valeria said, bringing her stunned girlfriend around to face her. "You know how you said you hated the whole Avengers Initiative thing, and how the 'Young' Avengers sounded demeaning and we both don't like being treated as kids…"

"What," she repeated.

"Hey, I actually gave this some thought," Cage declared, spinning her around once more, "apart from owing your girl there for a building, I saw you yesterday, fighting like a team. And I know you both got doctorates and knighthoods and stuff so…yeah."

"Plus it's always handy to have some scientific and magical genii around, not discounting you of course Stephen, but you have a lot on your plate," Jessica added.

"What," Sofia repeated a third time.

"Hey, babe," Valeria stated, pulling Sofia back around to face her, "we've talked a lot about getting away from our parents a bit, and you did say you'd maybe do some more hero stuff and less sorta villainy stuff." Sofia stared into the slightly pouting face of the girl she was in love with.

"The Avengers," she stated, still trying to wrap her head around it.

"Hey, think of it this way, we get to see our parents' faces when we tell them we're Avengers," the reassurance didn't go over that well with Sofia, who was still struggling with dozens of different thoughts and emotions. "Sofia, look at me, please, just do this for me," the blonde punctuated her plea with a kiss, moulding their lips together.

"That's playing dirty, you're pulling that card," Sofia said, pulling back to look into electric blue eyes.

"Please, for me, I can't stand the thought of…." she trailed off quietly before moving forward to whisper the final part in her ear; "you've been in jail once already, I couldn't stand to see that again because I know I'd have to break you out. And I know if you keep on that path we'll be fighting off these people around us and I really don't want to do that; I consider half of them family."

Sofia pulled back once more, to stare into those soulful eyes for a long few moments, also feeling for the first time the other stares fixed on them in this corner of Stark Tower. Finally, she turned to Cage, who outstretched a muscly hand. Shaking her head a little she reached over and shook the proffered limb.

"On a trial basis," she at last relented, trying not to be bowled over as a squealing blonde attacked her from behind, wrapping arms around her.

"Whatever you like; we're not gonna treat you like a soldier," Cage replied. "What about you two, you in?"

"Yeah sure, why the hell not. This'll make Reed the only member of the four not to have ever been an Avenger," Grimm said, chuckling.

"You can count on my assistance as well," Strange added.

"Well, this calls for another round of beers," Cage said, turning to go find some of said.

"Yeah, I think I could use a drink," Sofia replied somewhat dazedly.

"Hah, big ol' mainstream Avengers may have Iron Man; but the New Avengers have my girlfriend the iron-livered," Valeria proclaimed, throwing an arm over her shoulder much as Cage had done to his wife.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Right, this is as far as I ever got with this little plot bunny (which is further than I do with most to be fair) but as usual I ran out of steam, and to be honest I didnt like quite how quickly it was going with everything, but I don't know how to do subtlety...I'm still very much an amateur. Anyway, here's what there is, may come back to this at one point since I do know vaguely where I was going with plot.**

Chapter 10

"Hey, didn't think you were coming," Cage greeted as Sofia and Valeria landed on the ground, the redhead banishing her shadowy wings.

"Ah, took a bit of time for my father to get over the shock," she replied, walking over to the trio that stood by a mover's van.

"I seriously thought he was going to faint. Whole thing, suddenly worth it," Valeria added.

"He reacted better than your mother."

"I thought she was going to lock me away forever."

"She probably would if she could. But anyway, we promised to help you move in. Levitation can be really helpful."

"Well, pick up a box, we could definitely use an extra hand or two," Cage replied, himself hefting up a sofa.

"I still can't get over the fact we now live in Avengers Mansion," Jessica said, staring up at the building while holding the baby in her hands.

"We _own_ Avengers Mansion," Cage stated.

"And come on, those are words you never thought you'd say out loud," she replied.

"By the way I'll give you fifty dollars for it now it right now," Rand added.

"What?"

"The building. That is a huge return on your initial investment."

"You are a shrewd businessman Danny Rand," Jess said, chuckling.

"I'm pretty sure I should be consulted over sale, I must own half of it or something," Valeria declared as she stepped from the truck with a cardboard box in hand.

"How's that?"

"You bought it with my dollar."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

"Eh, worth a try." Sofia laughed as she stepped down beside her girlfriend, a tall box clasped in her arms.

"Should we, I don't know, go in?" Rand asked, staring over at the structure.

"Honestly I kind of just want to stand here and let the moment happen," Cage said, equally awed.

"Yeah I can see that."

"Alright, that's enough," declared the mother, moving past the pair.

"I'm still having my moment," her husband protested.

"I have to pee," she said simply, turning towards the great doors. The woman stopped as the doors creaked open, and a figure stepped out. "You…"

"Stop right there, please, stop. My name is Victoria Hand; do you know who I am?" The woman declared, hefting an advanced looking rifle.

"Put that gun down crazy woman!" shouted Cage as his wife moved to shield their baby with her body.

"Yeah we know who you are, you were Osborn's second," Sofia said loudly, wary of the weapon in her hands. Her hands gained a slight purple glow as she readied her magic, "and the last time I saw you, you were being arrested."

"I was deputy director of HAMMER, I have a note for you," the woman replied.

"You put that gun down or I will knock your head off your-."

"Take the note." Hand interrupted Cage's anger by moving her gun away and holding out a small white letter to the man. He looked indecisive about trusting her, hesitant to touch the paper.

"Take the note," Jessica said firmly.

Her husband acquiesced and it was a tense few moments as he read the black script.

"What's with the gun?" he asked finally.

"It's not loaded," she stated, flipping it on the trigger slightly to show the hole where the clip was missing. "It was to stop you attacking me. I can hardly walk up to you and blow kisses. I don't have powers and you people hate my guts and could kill me…."

"And you thought pointing a gun at my kid would help?" Cage replied angrily. "No, you know what, you want me to even consider this you tell me why you were working for Norman Osborn in the first place, Princess."

"Trying to help save the world."

"That really didn't work at all, did it?"

"Yeah, I already figured that out by myself when he started going off the deep end, but thanks." Cage remained silent as Hand was affixed with glares from the three original 'Heroes for Hire.' "Don't sweat it, I'll leave. This was hardly my idea." The woman adjusted her red tinted glasses and made to move past them all to leave the mansion.

"Then why'd you come?" Cage asked her departing form.

"Because Captain America asked me to. Sorry," she didn't turn around as she walked out of the iron gates.

"Luke, what are you thinking?" Jessica questioned, looking at her husband. "No Luke."

"Rogers asked," he said simply.

"She just held a gun to our baby's head!"

#############################################################################################

"Aww, look at her little face. How old is she now?" Valeria said from where she was cradling Danielle Cage, under the watchful eye of her mother of course.

"Getting on for two years now," Jessica answered, smiling down, "feels like just yesterday I first held her."

"Just look at her Sofia, little Dani."

"She is kind of cute," Sofia relented from the other side of the love seat, half-heartedly sipping from her bottle of beer as various members of the New Avengers feasted on junk food around the room.

"She is definitely cute. What's got you so down?"

"I don't know, I just don't feel…. something's wrong, I don't know what," she replied vaguely, rubbing her arm as she tried to place the sensation.

"You ain't the only one," Spiderman said from the table, levelling a pointed glare at Victoria Hand from where she stood with her tablet computer.

"Okay, do you just want to get whatever it is out of the way now?" the woman replied, looking over red lenses at the man.

"Okay, how about what the hell are you even doing here?" he replied tersely.

"I'm your liaison," she said, tapping on her screen a bit.

"And what does that mean?"

"It means I co-ordinate with other Avengers teams and with SHIELD, and if anyone has problems or issues they go through me. Someone wants to sue you for throwing a guy onto their car; I deal with it. Some guy breaks a wall in this place; I get the builders in. Etcetera. Every Avengers team has one now, it's Rogers' idea."

"Okay, but why you? You got the whole Osborn thing and I don't exactly trust someone who has no problem with the world according to Osborn." The woman sighed, and put down her tablet as several people looked over at her for an explanation.

"Saying for the second time today; Osborn was a sick man but a genius. He didn't have a problem with getting his hands dirty and actually solving problems head on. Yes, there was questionable stuff that I perhaps overlooked in the name of the greater good. I made every effort to help him combat his illness and it may surprise you to know that I kept a loaded gun on me at all times in case of him… Asgard spiralled out of control, and trust me I regret not taking the shot when I had the chance but in those last few weeks he never left his lab and always wore his armour…" She kneaded her temples as she tried to think of what to say, flicking the red highlights in her dark hair. "In dark times we make do, and there was a chance to really affect the world for the better and I seized it with both hands. It didn't work out." There was a long silence following her proclamation, during which the woman returned to her device rather than meet anyone's eyes.

"Hey Luke, can you pass me a cold one?" Logan broke the silence.

"Sure thing," the man himself replied. As he reached a muscled hand for a bottle though, it was suffused with golden light. He gave a cry of shock as a golden item appeared in his hand, dropping it as he did.

"What the hell just happened?" Grimm asked, moving away from the table to see the object on the floor.

"I don't know," Cage replied, looking down at the object as people moved over. "Shit, is that Doctor Strange's eye of Ago-what-the-hey."

"The Eye of Agamotto," Sofia stated, leaping up to look at the legendary golden item. "Currently belongs to Jericho Drumm, he's the Sorcerer Supreme."

"What's it doing here?" the rocky man asked, directing the question at her. The redhead could feel the eyes of the room on her, being the only magic user present.

"I don't know," she replied, kneeling down to look at the closed eye, "it shouldn't be here without Drumm."

"It was looking for me," a voice proclaimed. Sofia turned slightly to view Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom having appeared in a burst of orange flame. "It can only mean one thing; Doctor Voodoo is dead. This is terrible, terrible news. Sofia, hand it over, we'll avenge his death together." Sofia stared at the duo as chills ran down her spine, her bad feeling compounding. Strange knew the eye wasn't as simple as that, and this kind of transportation spell was deliberately sending it to Cage. Which meant Strange was lying. She carefully picked up the Eye, cradling the golden object.

"Do you guys know where Doctor Voodoo was when this went down? Do we even-?" Cage was stopped in his question by Wolverine grabbing his arm and shaking his head. "Who am I speaking to?"

"The new ruler of this dimension," he replied as his skin turned translucent to reveal bones and his eyes glowed red. "With your help."

Sofia arched her back in pain as something flowed through her wringing a gasp from her. She was mentally brushed aside in her own mind as red light began to surround her, pouring from her eyes and mouth. She could only watch in horror, beating upon prison bars in her own mind as the New Avengers circled around and prepared to attack her. Words were exchanged but muffled noise was all that she heard, unable to make out detail.

Hands were placed on either side of her head and Valeria hovered in front of her face, mouth moving quickly but she was unable to determine any of what she was saying. She screamed out in her own mind as a metal hand slammed forward to punch Valeria in the stomach, sending the blonde flying backwards. The look of pain on her face broke Sofia's heart.

She raged and cried out inside her own head, desperate for anything to free her from whatever force was controlling her actions. Her head was dizzied as she was punched in the gut from a vengeful Ben Grimm, sending her small frame backwards into a wall, cracking her back against it. She could just make out that Luke Cage was picking the Eye up, her having dropped it in the air. A surge of energy left her body, streaming towards Cage.

Iron Fist stepped up to the mark, blocking her look of Cage. Against her will, her hands moved up to attack the man, blocking the legendary fist with her magical arm, and laying in her own punches. She noticed Fist's eyes flicking to the right briefly, and turned her own head in time to witness only a blur before blackness ensnared her.

#############################################################################################

Sofia's back arched up and she took in a huge breath as she awoke. She greedily gulped down lungfuls of oxygen, while opening her eyes. Air, aching bones and a huge headache ceased to matter as she noticed Valeria hovering above her. Immediately, memories rushed back in and she threw her arms up to throw them possessively around the blonde.

"I'm so sorry Val, it wasn't me. I couldn't stop it, I'm sorry," she said quickly, grasping the girl to her body.

"Lay back down, let the spell finish," commanded a voice as firm hands pushed her back down to the floor, and a green aura surrounded her.

"Who did this to us?" asked a frustrated and angry voice from behind him, which Sofia was just able to make out as Hellstrom.

"Who _could_ is a good question," Sofia replied, trying not to grimace as her body healed. "Possessing four people at once? Including three magic users?"

"They're trying to pull this dimension apart," Hellstrom stated, affixing Strange with an angry glance while he healed her.

"Where's the Eye?" she asked, struggling sluggishly to her feet as the spell finished.

"They're fighting over it in Grand Central Park," Valeria replied, helping haul her girlfriend to her feet.

#############################################################################################

"Get away from it!" Hellstrom shouted as they raced towards the brawling members of the team.

"Which 'it' are you talking about? The eye or the demon?" Fist replied, grasping the golden object tightly.

"You guys feeling better now? We could really use some good old fashioned whammy," Grimm declared, pounding his fist once more into an inhumanly sized Cage.

"Or you could tell those who are not master magicians what on earth is going on and how we can save Luke?" Carol amended.

"He just transferred," Strange replied, magic swirling around his hands.

"Iron Fist," Hellstrom stated a fiery trident levelled in his grasp.

The man in question levelled flaming, hate filled eyes at those present, the eye still held in his grasp.

 **A/N: Abrupt end I know, but this is as far as I got so...yeah**


End file.
